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GYPSY DAYS. 



This Volume is iwt issued as one claiming 
general interesl. It is compiled from Notes 
made on the back of our Maps, and is now 
printed tiiat my daughter's recollections and 
associations of our Gypsy ing Days, wJjen slie 
was from four to seven years of age, may be 
refresljed. 

Tin's edition is for Jjer and ber friends, is 
limited to twenty-six copies (one for copy- 
right), and the type is distributed. 

This is Number 



" The Oaks," Ciuenovia. 



GYPSY DAYS 



COLORADO, CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA 
AND THE CANADA BUSH 



^ 



:^ 




BOSTON 

J. G. CUPPLES CO., Publishers 

94 Boglston Street 

1890 



JUL IC IB90 



r 



JilW 



CopYRicHT, iSgo, 
By L. Woltbrs Lkdyard. 



All rights reserved. 



/ 



PRESS OF 

HouGKS & Adams, 21 Kn-app St, 

BOSTON, MASS. 



GYPSY DAYS 



CHAPTER I. 

Afteb many months of '' nervous depression," 
that most annoying disarrangement of the system 
that simulates a hundred ailments without yield- 
ing to the treatment for any, the order came from 
a physiean, wise beyond question, " Go back to 
semi-civiHzed life to heal the wear and tear of 
modern existence, and the enervation of office 
care." 

Banished in this manner from office, home 
and social surroundings, to the recesses of deep 
forests, the shadows of canons and the summits 
of mountain ranges, — all connected with nomadic 
life immediately assumed commanding interest, 



^ GYPSY DAYS. 

to the complete exclusion of the wearying routine 
of business thought that had become exhausting 
to mental elasticity. 

Less than a century ago, nearly all the occu- 
pants of the narrow border lying between the 
Atlantic Coast and the vast and unknown forests 
that hid the prairies of the West behind a thousand 
miles of pathless shadow, were pioneers. They 
sat before huge, open fires that consumed the 
trees cut from the new "clearings;" enjoyed 
venison and trout from the adjacent forest still 
rich in gifts of nature ; and used furs taken 
from the " varmints " that worried their flocks. 
They were hardy yeomen, vigorous, and full of 
the energy and purpose that has worked such 
wonders all through a land then hardly dreamed 
of, — a domain not suspected by the keenest 
minds, one hiding under the mantle of wood- 
lands — by the margin of unknown rivers, amid 
the mists curling over mountain ranges, and in the 
mysterious depths of deep ravines — such wealth 
of mineral, animal, forest and agricultural pro- 
duct as has since rewarded a vast people with 
fortunes like those of necromancy. 

To these settlers the blaze on the home hearth- 
stone ofiEered radiated heat as a camp-fire ; the 



GTPSY DAYS. 6 

huge chimney drew away all foul air, while fresh 
breath whistled through the cracks of window 
and door unimpeded by double-sash or weather- 
strip. An electric bell did not in that primitive 
time summon a servant to put on coal, or turn 
on steam, to save a luxurious person from the 
fatigue of lifting a foot from an art-cushion. 
Then a few strong blows of the axe, and wood 
was brought in, accompanied by a whisk of fresh 
air and a few sparkling snow-flakes, to crackle on 
the andirons, to warm the folk with wholesome 
heat. 

Half the powers of the air, the earth and the 
Devil had not then been summoned as slaves by 
science to vex the brain, suffocate the lungs, 
unstring the nerves, and let unused muscles for- 
get their purpose until their energy should be lost 
forever. Gas, coal, steam, electricity, and their 
increasing kith and kin of light, heat, force and 
wonder-workers, were minding their own business 
in unsuspected concealment, and ordinarily when 
a man wanted anything done, he did it himself : 
in the present period of mechanical progress and 
complication, he does not do so if he can com- 
mand mechanical aid. — We are elevated, con- 
veyed, transported, lighted, heated, shampooed, 



4 GYPSY DAYS. 

half killed and brought to life again by a myriad 
of mechanical, chemical, electrical and diabolical 
contrivances, each of which in its evolution has 
softened many an inventor's brain, and prevented 
the hardening of the biceps of many a man who 
knows not the appetite that fresh air and labor 
formerly supplied, or the sound dreamless sleep 
that open-air life secures to those who are weary 
in body but unvexed in mind. But now the keen- 
edged axe, the steam-driven saw, and the fire from 
the locomotive, all urged on by eager nervous 
American haste, have so gnawed, cut and burned 
away the woodlands that he who seeks a vast 
contiguity of shade must carry an umbrella 
between his head and the sun for many miles be- 
fore the widespread forest silence is found that 
alone satisfies the nomad woodsman. 

We should save parts of our glorious forests 
before they are all gone to the sawmill, or ground 
into pulp to bear the records of murders and ras- 
cality that will be printed on fibres torn from pop- 
lars and cottonwoods that whispered peace only 
along the wandering streams, before they are used, 
wasted and destroyed as a spendthrift scatters 
the fortunes of a productive past. May we not 
hope that coal, aided by natural gas, will so far 



GTPST DATS. , o 

replace wood as a fuel, so cheapen the production 
of iron and steel and extend their uses as substi- 
tutes for timber, that we may yet rescue some of 
the magnificent American forests from the steel of 
the lumbermen or the more fatal steal of the land- 
grant railways ? 

Where to camp is already a vexing question : so 
rapid and far-reaching has been the continuous 
invasion of the superb woodlands that — fringed 
with palms and magnolias on the south, with Cot- 
tonwood, birch, cedar and wdllow on the north — 
were an inheritance from the great past, when 
nature clothed the land with varied verdure and 
no oifending purpose was known to v/reck her 
handiwork. 

To the Adirondacks we have often wandered to 
revisit scenes that come as welcome and as fresh 
to memory after many years, as catkins of the 
pussy willows come after a long winter as har- 
bingers of spring ; but the lovely lakes and deep 
forests that lie under the shadows of Mt. Marcy, 
and the companion peaks, have lost their virgin 
charms. Forest fires have worked wild havoc, the 
trout have been carried out salted in barrels by 
men to whom a salt trout was a reminder of cod- 
fish and as such more valued than the conscious- 



6 GTPSY DATS. 

ness of having left the surpkis of good luck to 
flash their jewelled sides in the amber-colored 
waters of the woodland, to live, increase, and 
reward to a proper extent, future ramblers. 

The deer, too, are few and wary. Hunted in and 
out of season, with an endless persecution of long- 
range rifles, powerful lights and hounds, they find 
little chance to breed ; while in the winter on crust- 
bound snow they fall before the cupidity of pot 
hunters for the sake of their skins alone. 

Ere long little will remain of the noble game 
animals of our varied land, outside of museums ; 
and he who seeks rest and recreation, coupled with 
those stimulating excitements of the chase that 
render hunters forgetful of fatigue, heedless of 
danger, regardless of exposure and as hardy as 
Indians, will have to travel far and wide to find 
an undevastated domain. 

It was, perchance, the " missing link " that said 
so truly that a " monkey knows not the value of his 
tail until he loses it ; " and we will know too well 
the value of the woodlands when they are cut away, 
leaving wind-swept, sun-burned barrens, where ver- 
dure, shade and prattling streams once gave the 
charms that soothe weariness with softened lights 
and half-audible silence. 



CHAPTER 11. 

COLORADO. 

We had been idling away days at Manitou, 
gazing at the lofty crags of Pike's Peak, wan- 
dering through canons, and wondering again 
and again at the fanciful forms in stone in the 
Garden of the Gods, when a famous hunter, Mr. 
Link, came in from South Park with a very ex- 
citing wagon-load of game : deer, mountain sheep 
and other noble forest animals. 

The sight of this load of game so aroused our 
hunting spirit that we left Manitou in a strong 
wagon with a constant sky-line of ears appertain- 
ins: to two diminutive mules, and started for a 
ranche on the Platte River, distance thirty-four 
miles. The day was clear and crisp, the warm 
sun had removed all the traces of a recent snow- 



8 



GYPSY DAYS. 



storm except from shady nooks, and so warm were 
its rays that our wraps were soon thrown back. 
Our route was through the famous Ute Pass, 
then the best of all the entrances to South Park, 
and an important thoroughfare for mining, In- 
dian, and Government supply trains. The old 
time-worn trail has been improved by modern 
engineering, and a road cut along the rocky sides 
of the chasm for some miles, opening most beau- 
tiful scenery. For some twenty miles the ascent 
was almost constant until at Hayden's Park the 
road attained an altitude of nine thousand feet 
and over. Pike's Peak was a constant object of 
interest on our left, from here not a peak, but a 
long massive ridge of stone rising in abrupt cliffs. 
On the sky-line, wreaths of drifting snow showed 
against the blue like frayed lace-work. The tim- 
ber line is very strongly marked, all vegetation 
ceasing at one elevation, no margin of low shrubs 
gaining a hold beyond the dark masses of spruce 
and balsam growth. The forest limit is about 
twelve thousand feet ; seven thousand feet higher 
than on the White Mountain ransfe. Ranches 
are built at nine and ten thousand feet, and snow 
rarely remains long upon the summit of the pass 
where exposed to tLe sun. At lunch-time we 



GYPSY DAYS. 9 

opened our baskets by a clear spring, made a fire 
for heating our coffee, and sat down to enjoy it 
on dry ground with no feeling of chill, within six 
feet of a snow bank that remained from a recent 
storm. 

Just as the sun set and the full moon rose, we 
commenced the descent into the Platte Valley ; 
most enchanting views opening before us of half- 
wooded plains, surrounded by range upon range 
of serried mountain lines, all catching the last 
rays upon their glittering peaks. Guarding each 
side of the road are huge masses of rock, one 
upon another, two hundred feet high, rising far 
above the pines, known as the Twins ; and looking 
between them the view was one suggesting land- 
scape gardening, so picturesque were the groups 
of dark pines, and so clear and broad the sweep 
of natural lawns. The road was perfect, dry, and 
as smooth as those of a park. So we spun along, 
our mules on the galop, the crisp evening air 
fresh upon us, until with one lovely view succeed- 
ing another the day passed away, when under the 
full moon every romantic feature of the land- 
scape was enhanced in weird beauty and unreal 
character. A few small cottages were scattered 
on the bottom land, where from open doors and 



10 GTPSY DATS. 

windows flashed the warm rich light of burning 
pitch pine, reminding us, with its ruddy glow and 
fragrant smell, of evening views in the South. 

No impression of recent occupation is received 
from this peculiar land. The fields are as fair 
and free from stump or mound as English 
meadows ; the trees stand singly, growing wide 
and free as trees only grow where there are no 
rivals for their share of sun and air : while all 
that art would do in obedience to the dicates of 
taste, nature has worked out in long centuries, 
with no eye to admire the graceful results, unless 
some Indian felt an appeal to his better nature 
in the widespread beauty. 

Soon we came upon the Platte River, and were 
at the door of Mr. Link's ranche, where we un- 
folded our wraps, and soon were toasting before 
a huge blaze of pine that filled a wide-throated 
chimney. 

The next morning, a fair, bright day, I started 
on horseback, with Mr. Link, to hunt for deer, 
leaving the "we" of our party at his ranche. 
We rode up a wide valley, and after a few miles 
came upon steep foot hills, mountains in our 
ideas; and now riding up, now leading our 
horses over stony banks and ledges where it 



GYPSY DAYS. H 

seemed beyond the power o£ a horse to go, we 
wound our way among scattered pines, carefully 
scanning the slopes for game. After a time Mr. 
Link proclaimed deer in view, and levelled his 
rifle for me to sight them over ; but it was some 
time before I could see the herd. The air was 
so clear that the hillside they were on seemed 
very near, so near that I looked vainly for large 
forms, and only after close examination saw what 
looked like rabbits among bushes, really large 
black-tailed deer among pines, when I realized the 
distance that was so deceiving. We urged our 
horses down the hill and along the valley, smash- 
ing through thickets of willow and quaking asp, 
eager to get the wind in our favor, well aware 
that deer are far more dependent upon smell 
than sight or hearing for warning of danger. 
When we felt safe in regard to the warning 
breath of the light wind, we turned up a spur of 
the hill where the deer were seen, and after 
a steep pull dismounted, picketed the panting 
horses, and started to stalk the game we had dis- 
covered. No more beautiful ground can exist 
for this sport than these mountains, rising into a 
crisp high air that stimulates every sense and 
braces every muscle ; where fatigue passes away 



12 * GYPSY DAYS. 

after a brief rest and new impulse comes with 
each hour's effort ; where the rocks and scattered 
trees afford concealment without shutting in the 
view, and firm rough ground gives good footing 
for the scramble ; but it is a fair fight with no 
favor, and he who gets game must work for it. 
No hounds can here drive the deer to easy shots 
from some concealed resting-place, nor can a 
guide paddle up and hold the deer by the tail 
until, after many misses, a ball terminates their 
agony of fright. They are as free as air, keen 
and alert, and their capture calls for guarded but 
prompt action, united with the hunter's most pro- 
found strategy. \ 

Mr. Link was most proficient in the chase of 
all mountain game, uniting with remarkable 
physical energy and endurance a great fund of 
information, enabling him to tell with seeming 
instinct where game would feed, rest, or run, and 
he was rarely in error. "These deer," he said, 
" would work up the mountain, if not around it, 
before we reach their pass, then to a second 
spur." To head them we made our ascent as 
rapidly as we could, halting at times for breath. 
AVe were in time ; for in the snow that remained 
in the shade there were no tracks, and sure 



GYPSY DATS. 13 

that they were below us we full-cocked our rifles 
and crept along a commanding ridge, watching 
eagerly every bush and opening. After a little we 
found their fresh trail, and followed it as it 
wound about the mountain, expecting every 
moment to come upon them ; for they were evi- 
dently not hurried or alarmed, as at times they 
wandered slowly around, apparently wishing to lie 
down for their mid-day rest ; but we crept after 
the trail a long time, up dry sunny cliffs, and 
sliding down banks on northern slopes, where 
no sunlight fell to carry away the snow. We 
were disappointed to find after an hour of diffi- 
cult stalking that they had crossed an open gulch, 
and ascended a second mountain. 

Mr. Link said he wovdd climb it if I would 
watch a pass, which I did ; but the herd evaded us 
by going just under a ledge out of sight, yet very 
near. Rejoined by Mr. Link, we slowly dragged 
our now tired limbs over the rocks to points 
where he had frequently found deer, and at last 
concluded to separate : he to follow a ravine, I to 
cross a crest. We had hardly parted when from 
some low shrubs several black-tail deer sprang 
up : one a large doe, facing me at about one hun" 
dred yards. I drew a careful bead and fired, 



14 GYP ST DAYS. 

and seeing her rear fall over backward and go 
sliding down the hill on her back, with her heels 
wildly flourishing in the air, imagined her done 
for, and sent a second shot hurriedly at long 
range after a buck that was watching with won" 
daring eyes the strange antics of his companion. 
This shot went wildly, as did one from Mr. 
Link's rifle, which cut a branch over my head on 
its way, and the remainder of the herd disap- 
peared with long graceful bounds. Turning to 
bag the doe, great was our astonishment to find 
her non inventus, while Mr. Link and his dog 
hastened along her trail, plain enough from 
showers of blood. She had fallen down the cliffs, 
gathered her feet under her at the bottom, and 
with last energy gone flying down the mountain 
side, going so far that we reluctantly abandoned 
pursuit, Mr. Link feeling that instinct would 
guide her to the river where we would find her. 
Again, on the summit of the mountain, we divided 
to stalk different sides of a long ridge. Mr. 
Link was hardly out of sight before his rifle rang 
out once and again. I watched eagerly for fly- 
ing game, but none came to my side of the range, 
and I arrived at our rendezvous without incident, 
where I built a fire and kept warm as the 



GYPSY DAYS. 15 

shadows grew long. After a time Mr. Link 
came up bearing a fine venison, and said he had 
hung up another, leaving a mitten with it to 
frighten away coyotes and wild-cats. With 
weary steps we sought our horses, mounted with 
the game before us and rode home, enjoying the 
moonlight in the valley of the Platte. 

Our second day's hunting was about the same 
group of mountains, where we made a long 
detour among the bushy ravines, seeking to find 
the lair of some bears that were reported as being 
in the vicinity. We saw no deer, but came upon 
elk tracks quite fresh, and after a long rough 
ride came in bringing the second deer, shot by 
Mr. Link, and the doe I shot the day before, 
which we found by the river, just where Mr. 
Link said it would run. She was hit hard in the 
head, and it seemed incredible that she should 
have run so far. 

A snow-storm of some inches prevented any 
pleasant hunting for a few days, and made the 
deer move on, so that we found very few signs in 
our daily tramps. 

When the first fair day came, we set out for a 
range not before hunted, and, separating, hunted 
each side of several peaks. Leading my old nag 



16 GYPSY DAY,"^. 

" John " around one sunny mountain side, I came 
upon deer tracks in abundance ; leaving him 
under a pine, I set out guardedly upon the fresh 
trail, and gradually gained a summit command- 
ing a wide view. No game was in sight ; but I 
heard the report of Mr. Link's rifle echo amid the 
crags, and after a little he came up on a return 
trail and reported that he had seen the herd on a 
ridge below, probably alarmed by our coming, and 
had shot two at some three hundred yards before 
they could determine the source of danger. 

We secured these, hung them up, and set out 
on the trail of two fugitives : a large buck and a 
doe, whose flying bounds over rock and log, 
often down many feet upon sharp stones, made 
us wonder at the strength of their slender legs. 
We followed over a ridge or two, when Mr. Link 
said, " They will probably go up to the next 
summit and lie down where they can look back 
upon their trail;" and, carefully peering across 
the next ravine, we discovered them watching 
their track : so we drew back guardedly, left our 
horses, and made a long detour, hoping to sur- 
prise them in spite of their cunning precautions. 
Step by step we stalked their retreat ; but the 
wind played us false, veering around for a storm. 



GYPSY DATS. 17 

and a shot at fleeting forms was all we had at 
them ; but in a moment we saw two other deer 
bound up an opposite slope, and when far up 
stop still and look back. They were a long way 
off, some three hundred and fifty yards ; but I 
drew an aim and fired. They did not move, and 
I took a second shot, while Mr. Link wrestled 
manfully with a jammed cartridge and spoke his 
mind freely during the contest. With but one 
remaining load, having dropped my coat and 
cartridges to get rid of weight, I would not risk 
it again ; but Mr. Link, having with his hatchet 
freed his gun, raised his sight and fired again, — 
a splendid shot, the larger deer falling dead 
from cliff to cliff. This made him three deer 
within an hour, all killed at over three hundred 
yards. 

Disappointed with my two shots, I tested my 
rifle, a fine one by W. & C. Scott & Sons, and 
found that I had done it injustice, by distrusting 
its power at such long range, and over-elevated 
it. Had I fully appreciated its great range and 
power, I should not have overshot the deer as I 
did by ten feet. 

This hunt terminated our expeditions for deer, 
and we commenced arrangements for an elk and 



18 GYPSY DAYS. 

bison hunt, as I was anxious to see these fine 
animals, even if unsuccessful in killing them. 

A novice in Rocky Mountain hunting must 
expect very unsatisfactory shooting from his 
arms, however perfect they may be, until he 
becomes accustomed to the transparent air. Ob- 
jects are more distant than they seem, and one 
is always deceived in elevating for long-range 
distances until practice renders the new atmos- 
pheric conditions familiar. 



CHAPTER III. 

COLORADO. 

Leaving Madame and our daughter, a little 
gypsy, learning rough life at seven years of age, at 
Mr. Link's ranche, we set out for an excursion to 
the more remote and unfrequented mountains of 
the Tarryall range, whose red peaks were seen 
distant against the northern sky. Our outfit of 
tent, saddles, provisions, tools and guns was 
stowed in a strong wagon, where we found a com- 
fortable seat on a pile of fur robes and camp 
blankets. Our horses were not rapid, but were 
selected for their hunting qualities, steadiness, 
surefootedness, and willingness to be shot from. 
A vehement use of condensed vernacular, the vigor- 
ous use of two whips, and some remarks that 
might in the distance have sounded quite Hke a 



20 GYPSY DAYS. 

negro camp-meeting exhortation, at times roused 
them to a display of " action," and for a few rods 
produced a speed of a mile in fifteen minutes ; 
but as we journeyed northward and gained eleva- 
tion, several inches of snow covered the road, 
and we were obliged to be patient and spend a 
good deal of time upon each mile, amusing our- 
selves as best we could with stories of hunting 
adventures. 

Mr. Link's experience was very varied and 
covered hunting of all kinds, from "" birds " in 
Missouri to grizzly bears in the coast range of 
California ; and his knowledge of the haunts and 
habits of animals rendered his detailed stories in- 
teresting to an unusual degree. 

Our road was over a series of summits, each 
higher than the last, with deeper snow and more 
violent storm, until at last we were obliged to 
walk and break a path, through which our weary 
horses dragged the wagon a rod at a time. So 
thick were the fleecy flakes that it was not safe 
to get any distance apart, and for a long time 
it seemed as if we must get under some rocky 
ledge and remain until the storm should abate. 
After a long pull we reached a ranche, — a most 
snug one, — when we gladly abandoned any effort 



GYPSY DAYS. 21 

to go beyond while the storm raged. The night 
came on with cold wind ; but the following morn- 
ing was bright and fine, and we were early on 
our way. The snow was lying light and pure, 
and as we went along we read on its surface a 
record of movements of many animals. A stream, 
Tarryall Creek, half frost-bound, was on our 
right : to drink from it, the wild animals had 
come down from the mountains early in the morn- 
ing after the storm. Here were the footprints of 
rabbits and hares; again, creeping under the 
chffs, two or three wolves had been. From 
almost inaccessible ledges, wild-cats and lyiixes 
had sprung down, starting balls of snow that 
rolled along, leaving pretty prints on the white 
surface. Amid a clump of bushes was recorded 
the life-struggle of a " cotton-tail " with a wea- 
sel ; in the trampled snow were the frantic foot- 
prints of poor puss in her efforts to shake off her 
deadly foe, and a groove where she had drawn the 
slender form of the " varmint " whose fangs were 
in her throat. At another point a " cotton-tail " 
had been surprised away from his sheltering rocks 
by an eagle, whose swoops he had evaded by 
bounds from side to side, until all the snow was 
quite beaten down. The low dashes of the bird 



22 GYPSY DATS. 

v/ere marked by the strokes of wing tips on the 
snow, as he headed off every rush of frightened 
bunny ; but we were glad to see no fur or blood 
on the snow, and presumed the bird was baf&ed 
at last. 

Three varieties of rabbits, or more properly 
hares, were seen, and a number shot from our 
wagon. The long-eared " jack," a wary fellow, 
wonderful in the awkwardness and rapidity of his 
flight, has some protection in being white in win- 
ter, as has the " snow-shoe " hare ; but the plump 
little cotton-tail remains brown, and is a victim to 
almost all predatory animals, from man to weasels, 
while owls and hawks haunt his timid life. He 
sits in implicit stupidity in front of his rocky 
home, and is so easy to shoot that only his excel- 
lence in a stew warrants killing him. The snow 
told tales of other animals, who, independent of 
night keys, do ramble late. Big bucks had come 
with high and dainty step to drink ; panthers 
("mountain lions") had stolen along with noise- 
less but not unrecorded footfall, and coyotes — 
fearful of all, but more afraid of starvation — 
had sneaked about, looking for some sick animal 
or timid hare for sustenance. A few birds braved 
the cold mountain air, — grouse, magpies, and 



GYPSY DAYS. 23 

jays, — and their footsteps made patterns on the 
snow as regular and dainty as if embroidered. 

All these abundant evidences of wild life, with 
Mr. Link's comments and explanation of their 
habits, made our third day's drive more agreeable, 
and not at all weary we reached his son's ranche 
before dinner, a daintily-served meal, where we 
were much pleased with the gentle and affection- 
ate ways of a tame antelope, a pretty thing with 
superb eyes, that courted notice and enjoyed it 
as much as a spaniel. Mr. Link's son Louis here 
joined us, and we went on and passed the night 
with a pioneer who had a very snug ranche, 
newly established. He was a keen sportsman, 
and usually supplied his table by carrying his 
gun when going for his cattle. His success was 
unusual,' as will be apparent when we state that 
in nine shots he had killed eight fine mountain 
sheep. 

An early start from the ranche took us to our 
camp-ground by nine the next morning, and soon, 
with Mr. Link and his son, we were mounted and 
en route for the mountains. Mr. Louis Link left 
us for a long detour through the haunts of sheep 
and bison. We went among some rough peaks 
for sheep. Herds of cattle were feeding on the 



24 GYPSY DAYS. 

dead grass that came above the snow ; but we 
were soon above their pastures and on the- alert 
for sheep, the most wary and cunning of any 
mountain game. They live among the most pre- 
cipitous ranges, and are fleet and surefooted 
where seemingly no foot can tread. Their gaze 
is usually downward, and rarely are they sur- 
prised, unless from some overhanging crag. 
Scanning every cliff and stone, we made our diffi- 
cult way upward, our eyes protected by smoked 
glass from the danger of snow blindness, here 
very serious. Our horses labored hard and 
barely kept their feet on the rugged slope. All 
at once Mr. Link slid from his horse and mo- 
tioned me to do the same. Crouchino^ low and 
looking under the limbs of a low-branching pine, 
we saw two sheep on a rock some three hundred 
yards distant. Our horses were hastily tied to- 
gether, and we crept up to the pine-tree, expect- 
ing a shot ; but the wind played us false, coming 
up suddenly, bearing our scent to the game, 
alarming them so that they fled before we were 
within rifle range. We went on after them, hop- 
ing to get near them and then let our dog (a 
Scotch colley) go, with the aim of driving them 
to some rocky retreat where the dog would keep 



GTPST DAYS. 25 

tliem ; but when let slip he soon came back, 
showing they had gone a long way on. We 
took the trail and followed it to a high peak, 
where, but for the unfavorable wind, we would 
have stalked them with success. As it was, we 
came almost upon them on an overhanging point, 
where they had stopped to overlook the valley in 
which they had been alarmed. Again we fol- 
lowed them ; but the snow was Avaist-deep, and, 
with the needle of an aneroid barometer down to 
about twenty inches, it was too rarefied air for 
much hard work, and our rests were very fre- 
quent. Our trail led us among their retreats, 
where they had lain under overhanging rocks in 
the warm sun, and out on rocky shelves that 
were very narrow, and from which the downlook 
was hundreds of feet of dizzy precipices. These 
look-out points were hard to reach, but richly 
repaid the effort ; for, spread far and wide, were 
the valleys and mountain peaks of endless chains. 
Near us huge domes of rock stood out from the 
mountain sides, a thousand or two feet high ; far 
away over the foot-hills the South Park laid like 
a frozen lake, treeless and white, with a surround- 
ing of sharp peaks, some brilliant in sunshine, 
others hidden by clouds and driving snow-storms. 



26 GYPSY DAYS. 

The south unshaded slopes of these mountains 
were rock-ribbed, with bold clitfs and buttresses, 
all stern and grim, with hardly a shrub or tree. 
The north sides were black with a dense growth 
of spruce and balsam, up to eleven or twelve 
thousand feet, where all vegetation ceases, and 
the mountain tops bald and white with snow that 
is almost perpetual. 

To such scenes do the mountaineers' steps lead 
in this beautiful country, filling days with pleas- 
ure, giving constant surprises and fresh delights, 
as the kaleidoscopic changes of season, of light 
and shade, pass over these eternal hills, confer- 
ring fresh beauties on familiar scenes, urging the 
rambler to new paths and fresh discoveries. Wan- 
dering here, vigor comes to every limb, weariness 
is forgotten : while the mind, filled with new and 
vivid sensations, springs up from past depressions 
and renews the power of keen enjoyment. Here, 
on our own continent, are rambling-grounds 
worthy of an Alpine club, and scenes that can 
never be exhausted : all so open that a carriage 
can pass far and wide upon the plains and foot- 
hills, and in the saddle almost any point may be 
safely attained. The game is certainly wary and 
not easily reached ; but it is noble game, worthy 



GYPSY DAYS. 27 

of every exertion, and if the game bag often 
comes back to camp empty, the days are not 
wasted that are passed amid such scenes, nor are 
disappointments serious that are accompanied 
with new health and every sense made keen. 
Forced to abandon the now alarmed sheep, we 
scanned the mountain sides from commanding 
points for bison, elk, or sheep, but saw no more ; 
so we made our way laboriously to our horses and 
rode back to camp, where we arranged our tents, 
collected wood and laid down by the fire, listen- 
ing to the wild-animal cries, while waiting for 
Louis Link's return. He came in long after 
dark, picketed his mule, and gave his report. He 
had been many miles often above timber line, 
where he had to break a road for his mule 
through the snow, and came at last upon three 
fine mountain bison : one he killed, a second was 
hard hit and left a bloody trail, which he had fol- 
lowed a mile, when night obliged him to return. 
This was cheering news, and after arranging to 
go in next morning for the slain, and perhaps for 
the wounded bison, we curled up in our blankets, 
which were soon covered by a light, dry snowfall. 



CHAPTER IV. 

COLORADO. 

The dawn of a snowy morning had hardly 
made visible the banks of our narrow ravine be- 
fore we were in the saddle, making our way to 
bring in the bison shot the evening before. Our 
path was the margin of a small stream that had, 
in geological periods, worn a caiion through the 
mountains. A low growth of willows hid the 
brook, except where frequent beaver dams had 
flowed spaces that, filled with sediment, formed 
" beaver meadows." 

The mountain slope facing north was densely 
wooded with spruce and balsam ; the southern 
slope, too dry from exposure to sunshine, had but 
scattered trees, and upon this, where the dry 
grasses remained, cured into natural hay, we cast 



GYPSY DAYS. 29 

our eyes as we went along in file, with the hope 
of finding mountain sheep. Mr. Link was in 
advance, with his tAvelve-pound rifle lying over 
his saddle, scanning with keen eyes the burned 
spots and fallen timber, when suddenly he sprang 
from his horse, and, resting his elbow on his knee, 
aimed carefully but quickly up the rocky cliff 
and fired. Our dogs rushed up the bank, and in 
a moment were tussling with a fatally wounded 
mountain sheep on so steep an incline that all 
came rolling down, together with dislodged stones 
and brushwood, an avalanche of snarling, yelping 
fur and wool. The animal was just passing some 
large rocks, giving Mr. Link no time to point it 
out to me, or even to wait my coming up, and 
consequently the only fair shot was lost. It was 
a fine animal, — agile, alert and thoroughly game, 
more so in many respects than the deer, than 
which the sheep is the finer trophy. Leaving 
it in the snow, observing the hunter's custom 
of laying by it some article that had been worn 
on the person, to keep off the " varmint " that 
recognize even by scent the presence of anything 
indicating man's royal prerogative to his game, 
we went on in the snow, that grew deeper as we 
gained altitude, until it was up to the stirrups. 



30 GYPSY DAYS. 

and our animals could only make progress by put- 
ting first one and then another in advance to en- 
dure the fatigue of breaking a track. It was 
rough riding, stumbling over logs, stones and 
snow-filled hollows, and our elevation was becom- 
ing so great that our horses, as well as ourselves, 
breathed with difficulty. 

To go light when an ounce soon becomes a 
pound, our aneroid barometer was left in camp ; 
but by comparing our height with other ascer- 
tained points, we made our final altitude about 
11,500 to 12,000 feet. When the snow-squalls 
drifted away we gained views of wonderful variety 
and extent through rifts in the clouds, that hid 
the wild scenes quickly again with their wreaths 
of mist. 

Quite exhausted, we came at last where the 
bison had fallen, and thence followed a deep and 
blood-stained path, where the wounded beast had 
rolled over the rocks, beating down the deep snow ; 
until we found the finest game animal we ever 
saw lying a mass of superb glossy black hair, with 
his white horns thrown back and his jet-black 
hoofs in the air, prone like a fallen oak. 

How great a distinction naturalists make be- 
tween the buffalo, or bison of the plains, and his 



GYPSY DAYS. 31 

kinsman of the mountains, let them explain. 
Very little anatomical difference will probably be 
found ; but the noble specimen lying before us 
was far finer in all respects than any from the 
low land, and well might he be : for his home was 
in the pure air of the highest mountains, where 
the sparkling water and fresh verdure of a brief 
summer, and the keen air of a long winter, would 
bring to perfection all the qualities of strength, 
fine coat, and sure-footed vigor that is so admired 
in game. A second one of the herd had been 
badly wounded ; and had we brought up our 
blankets and provisions we should have followed 
the trail, now reluctantly abandoned. 

The great head, skin and legs of the bison 
made a heavy load for one of our horses, a load 
that would have frightened Tam O'Shanter, or 
the schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow, had they met 
it — head, horns, hoofs, and tail on a black horse 
by moonlight, — and the quarters were staggering 
burdens for our two remaining horses, one of 
which, as an Irishman would say, was a mule, a 
wily beast, who, when our eyes were turned, 
would quietly lie down and roll out from under 
his load, and then stand looking at it with a look 
of serene satisfaction, that was not disturbed by 



82 GYPSY DAYS. 

the liberal amount of kicks and curses that ac- 
companied the laborious work of hoisting the 
meat up again. 

Our camp was now well supplied, and, wishing 
to try our disappointed hand at the elk, we broke 
up and went back to Mr. Louis Link's, whence, 
with two horses, our blankets behind us, and our 
mugs and tea-pot rattling on the saddle bows, we 
started after elk, expecting to sleep under trees 
and make our tea from melted snow, hoping by 
going light to overtake a band and win antlers 
as a trophy. 

Before night we found a trail of eight elk, and 
followed it far enough to form an opinion as to 
where they were herded. Early the next morn- 
ing we were up, and welcomed the sunlight as it 
came gilding the mountain tops. A spotless 
snow covered all, — valley, plain and mountain 
top, — and eagerly we scanned the wide outlook 
for game. A sneaking wolf was slowly making 
his way from one copse to the next, sniffing the 
air, evidently unsuccessful and hungry after his 
night's prowl, — the only living thing in sight 
except some gay magpies and camp-haunting meat 
birds ; but as we were watching, a distant roar 
came faintly on the crisp air, and we recognized 



GTPSY DATS. 33 

the call of the elk, and a response from some 
listening rival. Quickly, indeed, was our light 
breakfast made, and we were off. Fortunately 
there was no fine old china to pack up, nor had 
we a hotel bill to settle with a leisurely swell 
clerk. It was only a last pull at the girths and 
fresh cartridges in our rifles, and we were urging 
our horses to the point whence came the elk calls. 
A few miles brought us to the hill where Mr, 
Link's long experience told him we were likely to 
find the game, and here the signs were abundant 
indeed. The snow was printed with many paths, 
some with hoof marks as large as those of an ox, 
but easily distinguishable by being longer, nar- 
rower and more clearly cut. Carefully choosing 
the freshest trail, one where there had evidently 
been a "monarch of the glen," v/ith a royal 
crown of antlers, we followed it, our eyes peering 
into every thicket, with long pauses upon each 
knoll that gave us a chance to scan the valleys, 
and thus, Vvith our rifles ready, we went for many 
a mile, or, to shorten a long st^Dry, for ten hours, 
only in the end to find that the band had retraced 
their steps nearly to our starting-point and thence 
gone away, perhaps alarmed by our having been 
there. Farther present pursuit we were unequal 



34 GYPSY DAYS. 

to. Our horses were jaded from their long travel 
through deep snow, and with great regret we 
made our way homeward, our time not permitting 
another hunt ; but so charmed with the life here, 
and so impressed with the variety and noble 
character of the game of the Colorado Parks, 
that a strong impulse remained to try it again, 
v/hen more time might permit a long chase. 

Going again, we would use pack mules to carry 
camp necessities, and then, once on the trail of 
elk, sheep, or bison, keep upon it, camping where 
night should find us, thus saving the weariness 
and waste time of going miles back to camp. 
Thus success in the end would be certain, and 
delays and difficulties merely enhance the value 
of the final triumph of a hunter's victory over 
the keen scent, alert eyes, acute hearing, and 
almost tireless speed of our finest game animals.* 

* The years that have passed without this plan having been 
earned out, have seen the game animals of these mountain fast- 
nesses practically exterminated, so much so that the inhabitants 
of the ranges will see them hereafter only where they are pre- 
served in parks and museums. 



CHAPTER V. 



CALIFORNIA. 



" A FOUR-SPRING is what you want, sir, two 
strong side springs, box well up for fording 
streams, a wagon that will carry sixteen hundred 
and not leave it in a heap, — a trap that two 
American horses can draw, or four half-breeds 
can buck before. Yes, sir; that is what you 
want, and we can turn it out in a month." 

This was sound counsel from a German wagon- 
maker, as he stood in the warm sunshine of Feb- 
ruary, in front of his shop in Los Angeles, giving 
a final summing up of a long-continued con- 
sideration of the best form of conveyance for a 
Gypsy trip through California, to be taken when 
the spring heat should fall on the ground still 
moist from the abundant rains of the winter of 



36 GYPSY DAYS. 

1876, and summon the wealth of bloom and ver- 
dure that in Southern California is the onrowth of 
a few weeks of early spring, — a sudden over- 
whelmino;' of luxurious veg^etation. 

March, the month of the " Mad Hare," as all 
know, has few adherents on the eastern side of 
the Sierra, where it is regretted that he who 
" stole a March " did not steal them all, with 
their wrangles and struggles for mastery between 
the sun, the south wind, and storm-centres from 
Manitoba, each winning ground to be surrendered 
without conditions the next day, and so contend- 
ing until April wins the cause of mildness and 
repose ; but on the coast of the Pacific, March 
smiles with myriad bloom, wins our affection with 
all the wiles of soft and gentle breezes, and dis- 
plays all the charms a lovely season can possess. 

Sunshine later on, becomes actually v/earisome; 
for be it known to ardent enthusiasts of blue 
sky and days of sunbeams that there is such a 
thing as too much sunshine, although it is not so 
stated in the manifold enumerations of the attrac- 
tions of our Pacific margin. A week of serene 
cloudless sky is just jolly ; a month is possibly 
delightful. But when one cloudless, rainless 
month repeats the monotone of another just as 



GYPSY DAYS. 37 

dry ; when the shrubs whither and the fields 
assume the hue of bare earth ; when, if one can- 
not irrigate a garden, there is no resource but to 
weep over it (a task the clouds will not assume 
for many months of unmitigated sunshine) : there 
is just the faintest suspicion that there may be 
too much of so good a gift as sunshine. More- 
over, in summer the air of the great valleys that 
lie between the Sierras and the Sea quivers with 
heat and rises from expansion, while the cold 
breeze from the Arctic currents just off shore 
rushes in to fill the vacuum and burns all vegeta- 
tion from the western face of the coast range 
hills. Where there are openings in the coast 
range, as at San Francisco, this daily summer 
gale is as regular as sunrise, and it wafts the pe- 
destrian gently from the street crossing with cool 
persuasion. 

But stop, we have let our good wagon-maker 
stand while we are garrulous about climate, — a 
most unusual digression indeed ; for who is ever 
known to dilate regarding chmate in Southern 
California ? 

The vehicle was duly ordered and once under 
construction was subject to daily superintendence. 
Our lodgings, meanwhile, were on a terrace not 



38 GYPSY DAYS. 

far from the old Pico House, accessible by stairs, 
or by a crooked lane that led by low old houses 
of the Spanish style, — cottages we would have 
forgotten but for the tall geraniums that flaunted 
their gay bloom before the second-story windows 
in unchecked luxuriance. 

When we were not examining the wagon in its 
progressive stages, we had before us a charming 
view. To the eastward, from a porch, we looked 
upon the tiled roofs about the old church and 
into the convent yards, where processions of 
priests and nuns passed as the half-dozen jingling 
bells rang Spanish fashion their rather hilarious 
calls to devotion. As the eye was lifted, palm, 
olive and orange trees were seen on the borders 
of the town ; beyond them a rolling plain that 
attained more and more bold contour until the 
hills became the foreground of the San Barna- 
dino range, whose lofty summits, snow-crowned, 
were beautiful objects, giving an endless variety 
of sky-line and color. At times snow-storms 
would hide them in billows of cloud that were 
often made warm-hued and rosy to our eyes by 
the sun. The air, crystal-clear, made distance of 
little effect in even very remote objects : so, in all 
the changes of storm, shadow, sunlight and even 



GTFSY DAYS. 39 

moonlight, the eye commanded an immense range 
of varied scenes all sharply defined. 

Turning south and westward, the view was 
wide and open over the city to the Pacific, spark- 
ling in the sunshine with the islands of Santa Cata- 
hna and Santa Barbara, objects of great beauty and 
interest. Looking at the islands through the shim- 
mering light over the ocean, we saw constantly the 
optical caprices of mirage, under whose misrepre- 
sentations the islands assumed the most grotesque 
forms. They stood often repeated above their 
actual selves, sometimes right side up ; but more 
frequently, in the illusion, the sharp mountain 
peaks were reversed, or at times the high points 
were cut off completely. These islands are now 
probably soHd property, mirage included, held 
down by the price of corner lots, and their finan- 
cial fluctuations as surprisingly phenomenal as 
the vagaries of the mirage that so magnified their 
picturesque outlines. 



CHAPTER VI. 

We could not get away until the paint was 
dry on our wagon, and it took time to dry paint 
and varnisli even in this land of superfluous sun- 
shine ; although, in order to get them out rapidly, 
the plain facts about Southern California are 
often sent out nominally " unvarnished ; " but, 
for long endurance, wagons and statements are 
better for dry treatment. 

One who has rambled through old Spain can 
well understand why Spanish occupation first 
obtained strong hold in so many sections of the 
New World. Looking from the top of a dili- 
gence as one swings along amid mountains 
crowned with walled towns of Moorish type and 
time in Castile or Grenada, the face of the land 



GYPST DAYS. 41 

is that of Southern California. The yellow pop- 
pies and kindred masses of wild bloom in fields 
bounded by hedges of Spanish bayonet are those 
whose seeds went with the germs of useful grains 
to the gardens of the Jesuits, who carried faith, 
civilization and agriculture to the missions on the 
Pacific : those old missions where olives still show 
their gray-green foHage over walls of cactus; 
where oranges grow from Spanish or Moorish 
seeds, and the half-idle impulses of a mixed race 
repeated in varied ways, from early mass to cock- 
fighting, the good and the bad of Spanish inherit- 
ance, until the gold-hunting Americans came to 
replace satisfied stagnation by progress and all 
that progress means to a " live " Yankee. 

To English or Dutch adventurers of two cen- 
turies ago, the rolling sun-burned hills and dry 
plains of California promised little. Neither their 
systems of agriculture nor their ideas of climate 
would fit: their plants would hardly grow; so 
they sailed to the far north where dense fogs and 
abundant irrigation from above five days out of 
each week made them feel charmingly at home. 
We can imagine that, were the sunny State of 
CaHfornia to be discovered in the royal present 
by an Englishman, he would term it " blasted 'ot. 



42 GTFSY DAYS. 

don't you know ; " yet go on the parched hills 
with his trousers turned up, bearing a top-coat 
and umbrella, for a year or two, no more rashly 
inclined to adapt himself to new circumstances 
than he is to make a railway-car other than a 
series of coaches, or buy his ticket at other than 
a booking-office survival of ancient coaching 
days. What a lot of well-selected dead past a 
Briton does bear with him, and how oddly it fits 
California in its original form, where, nevertheless, 
many dehghtful young scions from good families 
of Old England are falling slowly but gracefully 
into new ways of great prosperity ! To the Span- 
iard, on the reverse, the climate, soil and vegeta- 
tion, with all the proper seeds, systems and 
methods of cultivation by irrigation, were home 
taught and at once rewarded by success, while the 
simple-minded Indian inhabitants of the Pacific 
Coast offered a tempting and encouraging class 
of converts to a faith so attractive as ritual and 
gaudy ceremonial made the Church of Spain to 
their rude minds. There was little to unlearn 
or acquire on the part of the Spaniards in South- 
ern California : hence the strong, early and lasting 
footing they obtained, — one that enabled them 
to impress their characteristics so deeply that 



arpsT DAYS. 43 

many of their customs will only pass away with 
the few remaining Spanish rancheros who still 
cling to Castilian ways of olden time. Their old 
mission of San Gabriel, near Los Angeles, is 
yet in a degree picturesque, with a high wall 
pierced for bells as a campanile, and when in its 
prime, with its irrigating system, gardens and pos- 
sessions, it must have been an impressive struc- 
ture to the lasso-slinging caballero and simple- 
minded Pueblo Indian. 

The large irrigated orange is golden, more beau- 
tiful than luscious, or was when we lunched under 
the trees, eager to escape the equal discomforts of 
a hot sun and over-cool breeze ; but time and skill 
have now lessened the ratio of skin to pulp and 
juice, and it is a favorite variety. 

^ It is modestly assumed that Southern Califor- 
nia will raise everything, from great expectations 
to small fruits, and there is fair reason to grant a 
large part of the simple-minded claims so diffi- 
dently made for this semi-tropical region, where 
beyond question a rich and dense population will 
find prosperous homes, surrounded by a great 
deal that is extremely attractive. 

But these are not considerations for Bohemian 
ramblers, so we will fit up the wagon to be ready 



44 GYFSY DATS. 

when the paint is dry. The front seat was high 
enough to give room for a trunk, and the foot- 
board was Uke that of a coach, leaving a space 
for grain-bags behind the driver's feet. The 
back seat had a white canvas tojf over strong 
bows, that always sustained aU manner of loops, 
pockets and hooks for odds and ends. Under 
the back seat were spaces for boxes that contained 
supplies and our cooking " plant," which cost no 
end of thought and frequent conference with 
skilful mechanics ; but ail proved so well fitted 
for roughing it that a description of the traps 
may be useful. 

A stove is an essential in California camping, 
where fuel is at times scarce, and where amid the 
wheat no unprotected fires are permitted while 
the great fields are ripening. Our stove was of 
sheet-iron, made without a bottom, and after use 
was lifted up from the ground, leaving the ashes. 
It was cleaned and turned over into a box that 
it fitted like a lining, really taking no room. All 
the varied cooking things were nested inside of it 
and went in safely. Each piece of stove-pipe 
was slightly conical, one went into another, and 
all were slipped over the tent poles, which were 
tied under the reach of the wagon. Our main 



OYPSY DATS. 46 

cooking-utensil was an original adaptation that 
saved us all fear of scorched oatmeal or burned rice, 
and also relieved us from the necessity of stirring 
everything that should be cooked with one hand 
while rubbing smoke from our eyes with the 
other. It was a water-bath cooker made square, 
to go in one end of the stove when packed, about 
nine by twelve inches, of strong tin with a copper 
bottom fitting the stove holes. Two cylindrical 
cans, one five and the other five and a half inches 
in diameter, went through the cover (sustained 
when in use by rings pressed around them), about 
two inches clear of the bottom of the main 
cooker. There were lids for these cans, and the 
same fitted the cover of the main cooker when 
the cans were not in use. Ail knives and forks 
were carried in the small can, that nested in the 
large one, which went in the cooker with room 
for all needed tin plates and many small traps. 
Thus in a small space our stove and cooking out- 
fit were carried, and they never turned out a culi- 
nary failure, — can more be said of a complete 
kitchen ? In making camp the stove was out in 
a moment, a fire roaring, and the cooker on it. 
A very comforting combination was jack rabbit 
in curry with potatoes, boiling in the main cooker, 



46 GYPSY DAYS. 

and half- boiling, half -steaming rice in one can 
and oatmeal in the other, all going at once in a 
compact form on one hole of the stove, and no 
trouble. Oatmeal could cook all night; hot fire 
could not harm it ; if the fire went out, the water 
remained warm for hours, so that there was one 
thing ready for early breakfast beside voracious 
appetites that needed no stimulant. 



CHAPTER VII. 

When we were about to start, our friends 
mentioned snakes, alluded to tarantulas, and 
spoke of centipedes. They told too, of bold 
highwaymen who had " held up " the stage 
twelve times on the coast range route within 
a year and had financial transactions with the 
passengers : so we were not unwarned of annoy- 
ances. To seclude ourselves from a low intimacy 
with creeping things, we arranged our wagon for 
sleeping accommodation. A light boarding made 
the support for a small mattress, and this was 
suspended from the bows of the wagon as an 
upper berth for the petite member of the party ; 
while a longer mattress fitted the bottom of the 
wagon, all snugly canvas-covered, with reading- 



48 GTPSY DAYS. 

lamps and many convenient arrangements wholly 
practical, as one night's use proved : after which 
we forgot snakes and their kin, none of whom 
even suggested themselves, and slept undisturbed 
in our tents. 

The base of the upper berth had legs fitted, 
and with them in it served admirably as a table, 
as well as a rack behind the wagon top, when en 
route to support our mattresses and covers, all of 
which were rolled in great dust-proof wraps. 

Three tents were carried : one for our own 
use, one for our men (driver and cook), and one 
for use as a dressing and bath room fully fitted 
for all purposes. 

All these and many more provisions for 
comfort and safety were made when the time 
came to select horses. Horses were cheap and 
abundant, but good trusty beasts were excep- 
tional. 

Our first pair had one noble animal, strong, 
patient, handsome, and kind : a good average for 
a first attempt. His mate had no turn for busi- 
ness ; his prominent idea was to pose as a model 
for statuary and paw the air as no horse should 
that had never seen the bronzes at Washington. 
He was sold at a loss without delay, and a big 



GYPSY DAYS. 49 

solemn horse purchased to replace him at a street 
auction, and called Jerry, to go with Tom. 

In time all was adjusted, bundles from half the 
shops of Los Pueblos de Los Angeles were 
stored, and we started for Santa Monica on a 
trial trip, with a driver of rueful countenance and 
a cook of unknown merit. En route a few damp 
places of adobe mud threatened to absorb our 
wagon ; but we pulled out, and before evening 
entered a ravine that opened on the Pacific just 
north of Santa Monica, then in its flush of early 
growth, brilliant with unpainted roofs, and re- 
sounding with the racket of many hammers. 

Our retreat was quiet and sheltered, with 
abundant shade, water and feed for the horses; 
the latter the pretty clover alfaleria. 

As soon as our tent was up, a wild steer came 
rushing up as if to carry it away on his long horns. 
The cook was ordered to drive him away, but 
declined without hesitation, saying he was afraid. 

Faute de mieux, I made a dash at him with a 
rail, and after a few threatening demonstrations 
he turned tail and disappeared, — the only really 
mischievous beast we encountered in all our 
rambles. 

South of Santa Monica, in estuaries and 



50 GYPSY DAYS. 

marshes, there were wild-fowl iu great numbers. 
On the plain, plover ran about in immense flocks, 
while high over head sand hill cranes croaked as 
they wheeled in long lines. The beautiful top- 
knot quail were in the low thickets in quantities 
and often seen, always exciting admiration, with 
stylish head-dress and snug-fitting plumage. 

Below Santa Monica the wind had driven pure 
sea sand into hills and hollows, making the most 
perfect and secluded spot imaginable for sea and 
sun bathing. The sand at the bottom of the cup- 
shaped hollows, which were some ten feet deep, 
was too hot to lie upon, but midway it was 
cooler. A plunge in the Pacific surf and a roll 
in the hot dry sand gave a bath and friction that 
no Russian bath could equal ; and if the writer 
were to assume any one cause as a turning point 
to restored health, the sea and the sun baths of 
Santa Monica would be selected. Every nerve 
seemed grateful for sunlight ; and may we not 
find a truth in suspecting that the myriad nerves 
and pores of the sensitive human skin need more 
sun and air than they ever get under the almost 
impervious dress of civilization ? 

Once, when visiting this unfrequented spot, a 
man was seen at a distance ploughing, followed 



GYPSY DAYS. 51 

by a train of white as if his plough had uplifted 
a furrow of snow. Curiosity impelled a nearer 
view, when it was discovered that a flock of white 
sea-gulls followed the footsteps of the farmer, 
feeding eagerly on the grubs and worms exposed 
by the plough. These gulls were free from fear ; 
for the good sense of the people prevents the 
destruction of useful birds, and the most harmo- 
nious relations exist. In San Diego, the gulls 
were the scavengers ; they sat about kitchen 
doors ready for refuse, and did not hesitate to 
rush under one's feet for a coveted bit; they 
were as useful and far more agreeable in this 
capacity than the turkey buzzards of the south- 
ern Atlantic cities. In this connection it may be 
said that the show of wild-fowl in San Francisco 
harbor is very interesting to strangers. Popular 
sentiment protects all birds and seals within the 
limits of the city ; and we were often amused for 
hours, while yachting, to see huge pelicans plunge 
in fearlessly among the shipping and fill their 
pouches with fish in perfect confidence within 
a few yards of us. Outside of the protected 
limits they are wild and wary, showing how 
wisely they understand the bounds of protection 
and danger. 



52 GYPSY DAYS. 

Our days at Santa Monica were full of idle 
lotus-eating hours, passed watching the slow 
Pacific surf roll in, shooting wild-fowl in the 
lagoons, playing in the sand, and doing nothing 
with energy and success. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

On our return to Los Angeles our wagon was 
strengthened, a new cook replaced the one afraid 
of cattle, who found safety in a restaurant ; the 
few needful changes were made that were found 
desirable in our outfit ; and we were again under 
way northward, with traps of all kinds in and 
under the heavily burdened wagon. 

The second day found us in the park-like 
country so peculiar to California, where broad- 
spreading oaks stand alone, with all the stately 
beauty of trees that have had for centuries ample 
space to extend their branches free from contact 
with other growth. Among them were blooming 
shrubs, the Manzanita and Ceanothus, all naturally 
so combined as to produce the effects landscape 



54 GYPST DAYS. 

gardeners seek to attain, but rarely achieve except 
on the ancient estates of England. Here we 
began to see the large gay-colored woodpecker, 
that digs round pits in the bark of the oaks and 
fits an acorn tightly into each as provision for 
hard times, a prudent bird, organizing a savings- 
bank system. Another peculiar bird is el pay- 
sano, or road-runner, an habitue of the low 
thorny cactus, under which it finds a retreat 
where none can follow. It can rarely be forced 
to fly by a running horse, but skims over the 
spaces between the cactus-plants like a shadow, 
giving the observer but little opportunity to see 
the style and beauty the bird possesses. An 
unpleasant experience here was alkali water from 
a stream seemingly pure and brilliant. Our 
resources for drinking were limited, Apollinaris 
had not come as a boon to ramblers, and the 
native wines were too sweet and heady for a long 
drink. The art of making light wines had not 
then been generally attained ; but now delight- 
ful clarets come from the same vineyards. 

The Santa Clara River when we reached it was 
high and rapid, with quicksand bottom. In doubt 
as to the passage, we rested at the ford until 
some kindly Germans led the way, carrying part 



QYP8T DAYS. 65 

of our load in their wagon. So deep were many 
fords that we were not more than above the flow 
in our high vehicle. San Buena Ventura, we 
passed on Sunday after a long drive through 
grain-fields and by pleasant homes. While our 
cook added supplies to our larder, we visited the 
old cathedral, where mass was being chanted. It 
is a well-preserved building with gay altar-tinsel 
and large paintings of the usual churchly char- 
acter. 

At the stony ford of the San Buena Ventura 
River, emigrants were resting in camp, the 
women washing travel-stained garments, while 
the men repaired their harnesses or lounged 
about. 

North of the river the road is on the ocean 
beach, which is pounded hard by the swells that 
come many thousands of miles before breaking 
on this shore. For a few miles the available 
beach between the sea and the cliffs is very 
narrow and the passage must be made at low 
tide. The six-horse stages are unwilling to delay 
long, and many stories are told of their being 
driven through the surf with the horses hardly 
able to withstand the undertow. 

The heat from the high cliffs with the reflec- 



56 GYPSY DAYS. 

tion from the water made the passage almost 
suffocating, and it was a charming rest to reach 
Rincon, where a pure stream of good water runs 
into the sea and a pleasant camping-ground is 
near. 

Drift-wood was our fuel. It gave a very 
brilliant light, and, after the sunset colors faded 
from the sea and sky, we sat by our fire which 
cast its glow on the foaming surf, until, soothed 
by its rustling, we gave ourselves up to the sweet 
sleep that comes most welcome to those who are 
day and night in the open air. 

Each day of our rambling tended to enhance 
our enjoyment of gypsy life. It was character- 
ized by freedom from the restraints and many of 
the annoyances of travel ; and while there was a 
great degree of seclusion in our camps, we were 
often brought in friendly contact with interesting 
characters of a class that rapid tourists see little of. 

At Rincon we were near a pretty vine-covered, 
stage-station, where the event of each day was 
the arrival and departure of the six-horse coach. 
It came down the line from Santa Barbara at a 
gallop, and soon with fresh horses went dashing 
out along the narrow beach until it became a 
mere speck seemingly surrounded by breakers. 



GYPSY DAYS. 67 

Our dressing-tent was erected on the beach, 
where an elastic bath-tub was inflated, affording 
us dehghtful sea-baths in water warmed by the 
sun. It was March ; but the waves that broke on 
the beach derived their energy from gales that 
came not with them ; all was warm, serene and 
beautiful about us. The coast trending west- 
ward was in sight for many miles beyond Santa 
Barbara, while the islands of Santa Rosa, San 
Miguel and Santa Cruz were picturesque in the 
offing. 

At times the mirage lifted the Ana Capa 
Islands from below the horizon, and as we 
watched those interesting scenes, now and then a 
sea-lion would raise its dark head from the ocean 
just beyond the surf and gaze steadily at us with 
dark eyes of almost human intelligence. 

Our cooking was admirable, thanks to a Swed- 
ish servant; our appetites needed no enticing 
dainties, flowers of many hues were on the table, 
while the sparkling stream was our finger bowl. 
After our meals we rambled along the sea under 
the picturesque cliffs and failed to count the 
hours until reminded of time's passage by hunger. 

Shells, sea-weeds, and beautiful zoophytes in 
sprays like ferns, were^ drifted to our f eet_by the 



58 GYPSY DAYS. 

slow-beating surf, and the days were full of 
interest. Aroused at times by a demi-tasse de 
cafe noir from idleness and semi-somnolence, we 
drove along the beach for miles ; but this was the 
extreme limit of exertion. After the sunset-glow, 
Venus, the evening-star, cast a brilliant ray along 
the sea; while a distant revolving light winked 
at the celestial goddess in the most impertinent 
manner, until she hid herself in the waves from 
which she sprang. 

We breathed climate, basked in it, praised it, 
and sorrowed for all who were in the slush of 
March as the month is conducted on the Eastern 
coast ; but one night our climatic enthusiasm was 
checked most rudely for a short time. — We 
came in about sunset from driving under the 
clifiPs, and the moment we emerged from their 
shelter we were caught by a gale ; it was a " dry 
norther," that under a brilliant blue sky raged 
and roared like bedlam on a spree. Our tents 
were flying wild, fire was belching from the stove, 
the covers and pipe were blown off, and our cook 
was spread out like a star-fish, holding a hot pot 
in one hand, the stove with another, his feet 
seeking to keep the tents from flying away, and 
his nose pinning light articles to the ground j 



GYPSY DAYS. 59 

while sand was drifting along like snow over and 
into all our possessions, and the gale snatched 
and buffeted like a storm-centre condensed within 
an acre. Efforts to corral things were in vain. 
That wind could pick up small stones, while a 
sand-blast from a neighboring mound filled our 
ears, eyes and mouths with flying grit. Fortu- 
nately a glen was near, where an hour's hard labor 
placed us under a high bank over which the gale 
roared all night without reaching us. 

The dry norther is devoid of the discomforts 
of ordinary storms, but possesses an especial 
selection of its own. There is no thunder or 
lightning or need of any ; it speaks for itself, and 
like every product of the Pacific slope it is ample 
and complete of its kind. It dries the skin, 
cracks the lips, makes the hair brittle, sometimes 
it withers vegetation, and not rarely causes 
pneumonia and severe neuralgia. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The road from Rincon to Santa Barbara, six- 
teen miles, was swept clean by the gale which 
was still blowing against us as we drove along, 
meeting dust and pebbles migrating before the 
wind in the direction of Mexico. Dusty and 
ruffled in raiment and temper, a retreat under an 
oak-tree in the outskirts of the town was grate- 
fully occupied, and the remainder of the day was 
given to removing a strata of soil from our per- 
sons. After an encounter with the dust of a 
" dry norther," a tourist might be platted for 
city lots, — an expedient suggested to speculators. 

Our protecting oak was the abode at night of 
a large bevy of the pretty top-knot quail. They 
seemed to disregard the proximity of our tents 



ayPSY DAYS. 



61 



and commenced at dawn to cluck and gossip in 
Volapiik about their plans for the day and the 
affairs of Santa Barbara. They were so confid- 
ing and amusing that we were reluctant to dis- 




turb them by rising before " sun up," an instance 
of self-denial that is conceivable under the cir- 
cumstances. 

Santa Barbara is old and new. The old is 
thoroughly Spanish : red tiles on low buildings 
sustained by bamboo rafters, picturesque and 
interesting ; the new represents the school of the 



62 GYPSY DAYS. 

scroll-saw, planer and ready mixed paints. The 
city, however, has probably as many solid attrac- 
tions to win those who can choose new homes as 
any point in the United States. 

Points Arguella and Conception give the cold 
coast currents that flow from the north, an off- 
shore course, leaving the bay between the shelter 
of the Santa Inez Mountains and the picturesque 
islands a summer sea, a small Sargasso, where 
the water circles until it becomes warm and im- 
parts less chill to the sea-breeze than is felt 
farther south. 

The railway then was far inland, so that Santa 
Barbara long enjoyed immunity from the hurry- 
ing crowds and confusion that follow the howl of 
the locomotive. An amphitheatre of beautiful 
mountains surrounds the happy valley where the 
village lies in protected isolation ; and here, 
whatever may be the tastes of a rambler, be he a 
mountaineer, botanist, sportsman, yachtman, relic- 
hunter, or given to swinging in a hammock, he 
can indulge all of his fancies without going far 
from his cottage or his camp. 

The climate in winter will compare most favor- 
ably with that of the Riviera, with much less " ice 
in the sunshine " in summer ; and during our 



GYPSY DAYS. 63 

stay we knew little but blue sky, mild air, with a 
gentle surf breaking on the sands. There was no 
suggestion of storm, cold or uncertain weather, 
so that all plans for excursions were made with- 
out the weather-permitting clause that casts a 
shadow of doubt over the best-laid schemes of 
mice and men in the old States. There had been 
very heavy rains in January and February, that 
secured to the soil a supply of moisture for 
abundant crops ; but later in the season the high 
sun would fall heavily on fields bare of verdure. 
In the spring all vegetation revels in sunlight 
that for two or three months is not too strong for 
the water within reach of deep roots, and the 
burst of leaf and bloom is wonderful. 

The oft-used term, " a carpet of flowers," is not 
strained in March and April ; they spring in such 
masses from the soil that they give color to the 
landscape like sunset clouds laid upon the hill- 
sides. We gathered them until our arms were 
weary with constant fresh delight in new and 
beautiful varieties, and often our wreath of wild- 
bloom was added to by gifts from the owners of 
successful gardens. Very kind were the people of 
Santa Barbara to the strangers in camp, to them 
unknown. No name was on our wagon or traps, 



64 GYFSY DAYS. 

our only token was a small yacht flag that waved 
over our tent ; but they were not inquisitive be- 
yond finding opportunity for generous hospitality. 

One morning in our camp as the little table 
was being set for breakfast, we saw a large sun- 
bonnet moving through the tall grass and flowers, 
seemingly invisibly supported. As it drew near 
we saw under it a charming little girl toddling 
along timidly with a basket which she summoned 
courage to bring to us, " a few fresh rolls that 
Mamma thought we might enjoy," all covered 
with dainty napkins and fresh flowers. One 
evening a tall figure, that might have stepped 
from the pages of Cooper's " Leatherstocking 
Tales," came to our camp-fire bearing a large 
frosted cake smothered in roses, — " a little offer- 
ing from his wife to the campers." 

He was a most interesting old man, erect and 
wiry, with small evidence in his step that he had 
been for over seventy years on the frontier, from 
the time when Western New York was border- 
land. He had been a bold invader of the un- 
known West before the Indians had dreamed of 
yielding to the White Man, and his wild-life tales 
made our hours about the camp-fire very inter- 
esting. 



GYPSY DAYS. 65 

One evening a little group of new-made 
friends gathered about our fire, talking of 
memories of the old Eastern homes and of the 
expectations of the new Pacific States : among 
them the old hunter, who, Indian-like, coiled 
himself nearer and nearer to the fire as the night 
air grew cool. He was seemingly lost in thought 
when one of the party asked us of our Eastern 
home. 

In reply we named one of the fair villages 
of the lake region of New York, feeling that 
it would be an unknown name, so far away"; 
but the old hunter caught the name, and slowly 
arising from the ashes until he seemed in the 
dim light a towering form, he raised his hand, 
and brought it down upon his thigh with a re- 
port like a rifle, and exclaimed with emotion, 
" Stranger, I was horned thar ! " Little had 
he known of his old home for over half a cen- 
tury, and. the camp-fire was oft replenished before 
he left it, so deeply was he interested in reminis- 
cences. 

His tales of men and things were like tradi- 
tion to the writer, who heard more of old local 
and family history from this old pioneer than 
any living person could tell ; for few or none 



66 GYPSY DAYS. 

remained from the time when the old man, 
then a boy, had turned his back upon the 
hill-top village that for many years was only a 
slender memory of civilization mingling in his 
wild life. 



CHAPTER X. 

Our route out of Santa Barbara led over the 
Santa Inez range, — a picturesque sky-line of 
mountains on the north. During our stay we 
had added to our cavalcade two saddle-horses: 
one Billy Gray for ladies' use, kind, intelligent, 
and ever faithful ; the other a sturdy gray Gypsy, 
with enough mustang blood from half- wild ances- 
try to make his physique perfect and his temper 
quite the reverse. 

Our preliminary trip was to the foot of the 
mountain where we camped, beside the road under 
superb oaks. The night's rest was varied by 
driving a troop of invading colts away from our 
picketed animals, where they seemed determined 
to become entangled in the tethering ropes. 



68 GYFSY DAYS. 

This led to an early arousing for the mountain 
trip. Well aware that it would be a hard pull, it 
was arranged that the reliable saddle-horse should 
carry two of the party on the ride-and-tie plan : 
Gypsy, our new purchase, was to aid by bearing 
a pack ; that is, we made that plan without con- 
sulting him. His saddle was of the Vaquero 
style, high pommel, having a great deal of sheer 
fore and aft, with many rings for lariats and 
saddle-bags. The cargo was miscellaneous : the 
bath-tub in collapsed form, bags of loaded shells 
and cartridges, a lot of " canned goods," and a 
general selection of what the cook termed " hefty 
stuff." As pound after pound was added, and 
turn after turn of the long cinch was drawn tight, 
the mustang stood with legs stiffly apart, in the 
attitude of a saw-horse, with seemingly no more 
spirit. 

Finally all was arranged : the result — a great 
corded mass of luggage, leaving only the ends of 
the horse visible. A gentle pull at the end of a 
long lariat, accompanied by a " Come, Gyp," 
started him, aroused him, developed him, as pull- 
ing a lanyard awakens a cannon, and he responded. 
The writer held the rope, and in an instant was 
flying a kite or, more truly, a nebulous formation, 



GYPSY DAYS. 69 

for Gypsy was " bucking " ! Bucking is a com- 
posite action. It has movements aptly chosen 
from those of birds, fishes, snakes, fleas, squirrels, 
kangaroos and bats, with figures from the ger- 
man, the flying trapeze, and points from Cath- 
arine-wheels and chasers. They are simultaneous 
in execution, and no instantaneous j)late is made 
that would define any one distinct outline during 
action. It was grape, cannister and small arms 
at the end of the rope : cords were bursting, 
hoofs crackington the hard ground and in the air ; 
bath-tubs, cartridges and " canned goods " were 
radiating with centrifugal force from a storm- 
centre of great intensity, with rapidly increasing 
risk of a general explosion. Madam's horse, for- 
tunately, surveyed the scene calmly ; but her mind 
was full of apprehension that the display might 
become contagious among our horses, when sud- 
denly Gypsy came down rigidly on four stiff legs 
and stood like a bronze statue, quiet, complacent, 
triumphant. Either the horse or the saddle had 
turned over during the action ; it was directly 
underneath the beast, while remnants of cords 
with frayed ends alone attested the load that had 
been so carefully packed. There was a sugges- 
tion in the surrounding debris that " Gyp " would 



70 GYPSY DAYS. 

not assume the humble role of a pack-horse. 
The point was conceded, and the unsmashed re- 
mains collected on the wagon. " Gyp " repre- 
sented fifty dollars in gold ; how much he 
" bucked " us out of, we refrain from estimating. 
It seemed as if his cost would be fully realized by 
the satisfaction of leading him to a secluded spot 
and shooting him ; but as we hesitated, the cook 
said he would ride him, and with self-remember- 
ing generosity we gave him the first chance. 

Increasing attractions mark every step that 
carries one onward and upward on this road, one 
that would be toilsome did not widening views 
constantly open of land, mountain range, island, 
and summer sea, — all varied with rural beauty, 
and our depressed spirits rose again, as the charm- 
ing impressions obliterated the vexations attend- 
inof the start. 

We were about half-way up, one of our party 
in advance to meet the heavy coach then due and 
secure a passing place, as it would come down the 
mountain like an avalanche, when another mani- 
festation of equine perversity brought us to a 
halt. 

Old Jerry balked, not with the indecision of 
youth or the impetuosity of sudden suggestion. 



GYPSY DAYS. 71 

but in a quiet, stolid manner that was evidence of 
mature purpose. He had been dwelling upon the 
idea for some miles, and now struck work with a 
coolness worthy of a " walking delegate," K. of 
L. He chose a narrow place and held the gap 
like a Roman, utterly oblivious of suggestions 
that, commencing piano, rapidly rose in crescendo 
to forte. He was reminded by the whip of the 
need of progress, while being addressed in lan- 
guage full of the " big, big D's " of the vernacu- 
lar, and the abundant '' r-r-r 's " that distinguish 
the vehemence of the Spanish aids to comprehen- 
sion. We had heard that a mouthful of earth 
would divert a horse's mind from obstinate intent : 
so, regardless of future values, we put a corner lot 
or two in his mouth ; but he would have taken a 
suburb without hesitation, no tender-foot tricks 
would move him, and the big stage was due at 
the narrow pass. It was humihating to have so 
soon a second defeat, but then there was no 
choice; the horses were unharnessed, and the 
wagon run back to a plateau just as a coach full 
of pleasure-seekers came swinging along on a 
gallop, with brakes set and traces loose. 

But it was not half bad after all ! Lunch was 
set on a rocky ledge, a bottle of the red wine of 



72 GYPSY DAYS. 

the new vineyards cheered us, myriad flowers of 
familiar and novel form and hue were all about, 
while the golden sea and forest-clad valley made a 
return to Santa Barbara no sacrifice. We were 
vagabonds, with no aim beyond open-air life day 
and night ; in such" air, amid such surroundings, 
delays were added enjoyment. 



CHAPTER XL 

Our driver, Ferguson, a most skilful horseman 
and excellent man, was called in council after 
lunch, and the conclusion was reached to return 
to the Cathedral Oaks, a lovely spot, and there, 
with feed and water at hand for our horses, 
arrange our plans. 

Our camp there was a most attractive one, 
under the Gothic arches of grand trees, with a 
running brook at our feet. A very beautiful 
pointer had joined our cavalcade, not even the 
threatening of the long whip would drive him 
away, and at night he came and curled up at the 
tent opening, a most faithful guardian. We ad- 
vertised him, but no owner responded. 

A second council held before our camp-fire led 



74 GYPSY DAYS. 

to our buying a very fine horse that Ferguson 
knew of, and a lead harness. 

With some stout boughs and copper wire, we 
fashioned a set of lead bars while awaiting a 
wagon-maker's better work, and Gypsy and the 
beautiful new horse were gently trained to har- 
ness, — Gyp proving very willing and tractable so 
long as not subjected to the indignity of a pack. 
The result was that after a few days we emerged 
from the Cathedral Oaks with a very efficient and 
not bad-looking four-in-hand, that promised and 
performed good service. 

Again we breasted the mountain road, with our 
horses rested, well-fed and in great spirits, and 
all went on smoothly until the spot was reached 
where we halted before. Here Jerry planted 
himself again with a confidence founded on past 
success, but his glory was evanescent indeed. 
Ferguson had brought his old six-in-hand whip 
with a stock as true in spring as a fly-rod, a lash 
of the most scientific taper, and a silken end 
made hard with wax. Gracefully it was swung 
aloft, writing mystic forms ia the air ; with a 
whistling of serious import the lash came swoop- 
ing like an eagle, not on the horse's back, where 
whipping was an old-time sensation he had 



GTPST DATS. 75 

schooled himself to meet, but with a flash like 
lightning it came up under him, lifting him like a 
shock of electricity high into the air, to return to 
the earth an astonished, reformed, humiliated 
horse. Later, on the Sierra, he would pull his 
shoes off and stay in the collar until his neck 
was worn ; so it was evident that he regarded 
balking as a lost art, ever after this well-accented 
experience. 

No rambler can leave Santa Barbara, looking 
back amid the rocky turrets that are so pictur- 
esque on the crest of the Santa Inez range, with-, 
out regret at leaving a scene full of beautiful and 
impressive features that never show so charmingly 
as from the last turn of the road before a descent 
is made on the land side of the coast range and 
the ocean is lost to view; but new attractions of 
novel beauty were at hand to divert our mind 
from thoughts that were a bit depressing. The 
sea side of the coast range has little verdure : 
cool winds, often laden with salt fog, seriously 
check vegetation ; but the east slopes gladden the 
eye with a wealth of foliage that is full of novel 
effects to ramblers from the old States. In March 
and April, all is in perfection : the dark green of 
the chaparral, the polished leaves of the myrtle, 



76 GYPSY DAYS. 

and other trees having a burnished foliage, 
catching the light like silver, are mingled with the 
tender tints of new leaflets that add mist-like 
delicacy to the woodlands. 

We removed the harnesses from our leaders, 
replacing them with saddles, which enabled us to 
ride on in advance to gather the flowers that were 
in myriads about us, to linger at attractive points 
and escape the monotonous motion of the wagon. 

Not far from the summit on the route to the 
north, a grand spring bursts from the mountain- 
side in a ravine, and here we halted for a noon- 
day lunch. A party of charming Eastern people 
were picnicing in the romantic spot, who extended 
a hospitable stirrup-cup as we mounted to go on. 
Far below, a thread among the trees, our road 
curved and wound its way to the plains, which we 
reached in time to select a camping-spot for a two- 
days' halt, the morrow being Easter Sunday, a 
day we were glad to use for rest. 

We found an ideal retreat where the chaparral 
of the mountain-side terminated in a wide expanse 
of plain ; behind our tents a mountain brook went 
cheerily over the stones, and some venerable oaks 
gave widespread shade without shutting in the 
air as do ordinary forest-trees. The brook yielded 



GYFSY DAYS. 77 

a few small but delicate trout, " Dolly Vardens," 
a gaudy variety peculiar to the west coast, espe- 
cially distinguished by a band of pink extending 
longitudinally from the gills to the tail, equal in 
width to about a third of that of the fish. Here 
we felt no sea-breeze ; the evenings were warm, 
tempting us to sit until late about our camp-fire, 
listening to Ferguson's tales of stage-driving on 
the overland when attacks by Indians were fre- 
quent experiences. He had not long before 
driven the stage over the road we were on, and 
on one trip saw three " grizzlies " passing where 
we were in camp, — deferentially the right of way 
was conceded to them. The dense, impenetrable 
chaparral affords such extensive retreats for bear, 
panther, and other more or less dangerous beasts, 
that they will long find refuge in the coast 
range. We felt safer with a double gun at 
hand when following the stream back into the 
dark ravines, and at night we always had two 
guns heavily loaded under the edge of our blan- 
ket ; for the road agents at that time were bold 
thieves if tempted, but we were not deemed 
prey worthy of their attention. 

Camp-life is not necessarily one of hardship or 
self-denial. Half the care and science needed to 



78 GYFSY DAYS. 

make an ordinary home agreeable will render 
camping luxurious, safe and perfectly comforta- 
ble under such favoring skies as we enjoyed in 
California, and perhaps more details of our camp 
arrangements may be of interest to some readers. 
As to risk, it is very little. A vigor comes from 
exercise, fresh air and constant interest that 
wards away illness. More colds and lame throats 
owe their inception to the bad air of houses, to 
defective sewerage, dust from carpets, and the 
contagion of a coughing, sneezing neighborhood, 
than to fresh-air exposure ; and as to the small 
dangers of life, a camp is exempt from more of 
them than any house contrived by man. One 
cannot fall down stairs, pinch fingers in a door, 
have a head broken by the failure of a picture 
cord, fall over a coal-scuttle, be caught in an ele- 
vator, killed by an electric wire, or run over by a 
herdic in camp. 

It is not necessary to post notices of " Don't 
blow out the gas," " Don't stand on the platform," 
" Don't walk under a new building," " Danger," 
" Don't go to crowded theatres or towering flats," 
— in camp ; and after a few days under canvas, the 
tent becomes a home with all home attributes, even 
if to-day by the sea, to-morrow by a mountain tor- 



GYPSY DAYS. 79 

rent, and the next day under stately sighing pines 
in some remote ravine. Our arrangements were 
very simple. In early life the writer went often 
into the deep forests, carrying " everything need- 
ful," provisions for emergencies, and guns, rods 
and traps for all the forms of game known to nat- 
ural history. Getting ready for these trips was 
simply delightful, as one thing after another was 
laid in due form in the packing cases. 

Such ingenious things as were offered for all 
purposes in sportsmen's fascinating shops as 
indispensable, from pepper-pots of horn to tele- 
scopic rifles and interchangeable rods ; bright 
with metal, new with well-oiled joints, and tempt- 
ing to sight and touch, they were associated 
months in advance with the furry monsters they 
were to bring down, with the dashing trout they 
were soon to allure, and with the sumptuous re- 
pasts they would insure for the well-known (and 
sometimes alluded to) hunters' appetites. 

A room was always given up to packing these 
lovely devices, where they formed a medley of the 
most picturesque details ; but when they were once 
in the deep woodland, where one horse and one 
steer before a "go devil" was the sole means of 
transportation over boulders, roots, fallen trees 



80 GYPSY DAYS. 

and slipping snow-banks, they were just a little diffi- 
cult to arrange, even laying aside all artistic and 
sesthetic motives ; and i£ there lives a bronzed old 
woodsman who has not decorated many miles of 
trail with things that would not work when wet, 
were immovable if strained, and useless in an 
emergency where one cannot recall the proper 
manipulation of some unfailing inconvenience, — 
we have not met him. 

First of all, in turning from the ways called 
civilized, find out what is unnecessary, and 
a long step is taken in becoming a gypsy. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Our outfit was organized for service, and few 
changes were made after the trial trip to Santa 
Monica. Our wagon was perfectly adapted to 
the work and stood seven hundred miles of varied 
service with little or no repairs. The high driv- 
er's seat insured command over four horses and 
gave admirable space for carrying baggage. All 
trunks and boxes were fitted to spaces, so that 
there was no " shucking about," and when the 
spaces were filled there was little chance of any- 
thing being left behind. The table-top was hung 
behind the canvas that covered the rear seat, at an 
angle, and here was stored the bedding, light but 
bulky. 

In many forest-camps we always found beds 



82 GYPSY DAYS. 

of " hemlock feathers " better than any art could 
offer. Elastic, clean, free from creeping things, 
fragrant and wholesome, it has no equal for in- 
ducing sweet sleep ; but the plains of California 
offered no provision of the kind, although the 
balsams of the Sierra were very good when obtain- 
able. Hence it was necessary to carry mattresses. 
As soon as our three tents were up, india-rubber 
sheets were spread in all but the dressing-room 
tent, and even when the ground was seemingly 
as dry as months of sunshine could render it, 
these sheets were always wet on the under side 
when taken up. On these sheets the mattresses 
were laid, and soft rugs above them. A few 
cushions with gay covers, mission blankets of 
varied hues, and wall pockets, made the open tent 
rich in color and attractive. 

Camp-chairs were set under the trees about the 
camp, where our table was convenient between 
meals for maps, books and correspondence. Our 
horses were tethered with long ropes to iron pins, 
to enjoy the nutritious clovers and grasses, which, 
with rations of barley, kept them in fine working 
condition. In the mornings they eyed keenly the 
tents, and when signs of life were seen, they 
neighed and capered like dogs with delight. 



GYPSY DAYS. 83 

They differed widely in adapting themselves to 
being tethered. Some of them, if the ropes 
caught under roots or logs would stand patiently 
awaiting assistance; but Tom would feed in a 
forest around trees and stumps until his long rope 
seemed a snarl of hopeless intricacy, but he inva- 
riably worked backward and disentangled himself 
without cutting any Gordion knots. The presence 
of our faithful animals was always a source of 
interest and prevented loneliness, giving some- 
thing of a homestead air to the wild situations 
we were often in. 

A brilliant lamp in our tent made reading a 
pleasure in the evenings ; and another night-light 
hung by the opening, where the faithful pointer 
nightly assumed a watchman's post as if detailed 
for the service. Our men were excellent, secur- 
ing us every safety and attention, while the cook- 
ing outfit now tested for many days proved more 
than capable of equalling the best cuisine of the 
few hotels we dined at. Supplies at times gave 
out ; but shipments from San Francisco met us at 
stated points, rod and gun brought trout and 
quail to the larder, and when all resources failed, 
a payment of a small sum would secure the right 
to shoot domestic fowls that could not be caught 



84 GYPSY DAYS. 

in any other way, as they were quite as wild as 
the game of English preserves. 

Ranches were many miles apart, but usually 
one was passed between luncheon and night, when 
milk could be procured. The Spanish residents 
conduct their dairying in primitive ways. To get 
a quart of milk, a half-wild cow would be lassoed 
and led to a post where a few turns would fasten 
the rope ; another coil would then be cast around 
her hind feet, binding them together, after which 
the quantity needed would be milked, and the cow 
turned loose to be milked again if needed, or not 
approached for days. 

Yet with all this seeming lack of system, good 
butter was the rule and excellent bread ordina- 
rily obtainable. When the latter was missing, 
oatmeal, rice, and various farinaceous foods were 
made extremely palatable by the perfect steam 
cooking of our multifarious utensil. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Onward by easy stages over sand-hills at Arroyo 
Grande, by the interesting Mission of Santa Mar- 
gareta, we made our way northward, every hour 
full of keen interest and enjoyment, galloping 
over the sod that was a carpet of blossoms, loiter- 
ing under the great oaks whose shade gave 
moisture to a lovely blue flower (a flower limited 
to the ground under the trees, producing the 
curious effect of blue shadows), and camping every 
evening amid new scenes, all having enough 
variety to fill the twilight with pleasure. 

El Paso de Robles (the Pass of the Oaks) is 
approached from the south by a road equal to a 
park-drive, through a vast expanse of plain where 
the grass is fed down to lawn-like keeping by 



86 GYPSY DAYS. 

sheep ; indeed landscape gardening could add 
little to this beautiful spot, filled as it was with 
majestic single trees that only centuries could pro- 
duce, with groups of blooming shrubs scattered 
in graceful outlines, and views of mountain 
summits over all. 

We could gallop far and wide seeing neither 
fence nor barrier, where every hour's rambling 
made it more a mystery why these great oaks, 
many of them six or seven feet in diameter, should 
have found soil favoring their superb growth ; 
with no other trees, as in the East, crowding to 
share the space about them. Day after day of 
azure sky, soft air, brilliant twilight and assured 
immunity from coming storms made life a holiday. 
We rode and drove for hours, returning hungry 
to our camps, to eat and sleep as only those can 
who live in the oj)en air. Health — ruddy, 
vigorous health — came to us all ; our hardened 
muscles seemed to know no fatigue, and as to 
nerves, we forgot their existence. 

A half-day's easy drive from Paso Robles 
Springs brought us to the Mission of San Miguel, 
a large church with other buildings surrounding 
a quadrangle with one entrance only, indicating, 
in connection with old walled-up loop-holes, that 



GYPSY DAYS. 87 

the arrangement had defensive as well as religious 
purposes in contemplation. One hundred years 
ago the buildings were evidently a much more 
imposing group, but time has left little to show 
their original extent beside the outlines of old 
foundations. 

Birds very similar to our Eastern favorites were 
quite abundant in wooded districts, but some 
slight difference in color or unfamiliar notes 
made them practically strangers. Quail were in 
frequent flocks ; so numerous, indeed, as to do 
mischief in vineyards. Driving rapidly along we 
often shot them over the heads of our leaders, but 
no second barrel could be used without endanger- 
ing Gypsy's head, as he invariably reared at the 
report of the gun, although he made no effort to 
run. They are not an especially tempting bird for 
the table, but a few often came to good purpose, 
when our supplies ran low. Often no market was 
passed for several days, so that our gun and rod 
were our only resource for variety on our table. 
Once when all other schemes failed, a fat lamb 
was bought, with the result of unlimited feasting 
on curries and chops. A fat cotton-tail rabbit 
simmered in curry in the large part of the cooker, 
with rice steamed, potatoes ditto, brought before 



88 GYPSY DAYS. 

US after a long ride or drive was not to be de- 
spised ; but the long-eared jack-rabbits took too 
mucli violent exercise to be tender, and we ceased 
shooting them. Our pointer added miles to his 
daily course by chasing them, never seeming to 
become discouraged by their sailing over grain or 
weeds in long bounds that carried them out of 
his reach in a moment. 

The route up the San Antonio was through a 
very lonely but picturesque country, the few 
ranches being occupied by the original Spanish 
Indian half-breeds, a seemingly harmless popula- 
tion, but many stage robberies in this wild region 
indicated that the " road men " were in a country 
where they found protection and assistance in 
their raids on the express boxes. We were sup- 
posed to carry no money. Our men were paid 
at the banking-houses of the larger towns, and 
they usually paid our bills for us from their earn- 
ings. Once, as we will recount later, we were 
actually out of cash, all pockets empty, no grain 
in the sacks or supplies in the hampers, no known 
friends to call upon. 

From th« sources of the San Antonio, quite 
high on the east side of the coast range, we 
passed to the head-waters of the Salinas, which 



GYPSY DAYS. 89 

runs northward to the Bay of Monterey, where 
there is a wide break in the coast range through 
which the sea-air chilled by Arctic currents is 
drawn to fill the vacuum caused by the heated 
air rising over the sun-scorched plain of the San 
Joaquin Valley. As this cool air passes over the 
land, its temperature is rapidly raised : consequent- 
ly it covets moisture and derives it from every 
possible source. It hardens the skin, which is at 
the same time sun-burned and chilled, the hair and 
nails become brittle, and there are many discom- 
forts. Trees grow only in ravines where some 
moisture remains, and they do not hold their heads 
much above the banks that protect them. Bird 
and animal life is not abuadant on the plains, and 
the few specimens that exist adapt themselves to 
the exigencies of their habitat. The ground 
squirrel is common and a pest. He resembles the 
gray squirrel of the East, with a less superb tail ; 
but a glorious tail to balance and guide him in 
leaping from bough to bough would be of no 
value, for he has not the trees to sport upon ; he 
burrows in the ground where possible moisture is 
found ; if not, he is at least out of the wind. 
This loss of the plume-like tail of the squirrel 
of the forest is an instance of the weakening of 



90 GYPSY DAYS. 

an unused member. Our experience would sug- 
gest that a squirrel with a full bushy tail, such a 
plume as curls over the backs of our home bunnies, 
would possibly be blown away by the gale as is 
the flying spider by his parachute web. A small 
mud-tinted bird runs in the ruts of the road when 
they are deep enough for shelter, flying only when 
forced to. He has no visible feathered companion ; 
for the only other bird observed is the burrowing 
owl, who does not suggest social character as a 
prominent trait as he sits on the mound by his 
hole in the ground, turning his head around so 
fast and far that it is a source of wonder that he 
does not wring his own neck. A most amusing 
habit has this especial member of the family of 
wisdom : it is a most pronounced and constantly 
repeated bow or, more correctly, courtesy. It is 
not the bow of welcome or the nod of hospitality; 
it is curt, rapid and definite, conveying plainly 
the hint : " Good-bye ! Good-bye ! ! — Don't 
wait out in the wind. Good-bye ! — Good-bye ! 
— Why don't you go on ? " Sad would be the 
lot of beast or bird on the Salinas plain, that 
possessed no hole in the ground for refuge. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Fresh supplies awaited our arrival at Soledad, 
where we halted only long enough to select our 
route eastward. 

Two were offered, neither very tempting : one 
around the spur of the San Benito range, where 
we would face a gale of dust-laden wind ; 
the other back on the east side of the Salinas 
River, over the range of the San Benito. We 
chose the latter as more picturesque and sheltered. 
It was a prudent choice, although the road led 
along the Bitterwater, a little rivulet as clear as 
air, but so full of alkali that our horses would not 
approach it. At midday on the Bitterwater our 
thermometer nearly reached 90°; in the evening a 
cool gale blew the sand, and rendered necessary 



02 



GYPSY DAYS. 



many extra blows on the tent-pegs to drive them 
deep enough to hold the stay ropes. Down the 
San Benito, with thirty fords to the Pinoche, 
was difficult driving. Late high-water had rolled 
bowlders into the few passable parts of the river- 
bed, the round stones made footing too uncertain 
to encourage the use of our saddle-horses, and 
only Ferguson's skill and unceasing care carried 
us through safely without breaking a buckle. 

Approaching Hollister we found the valuable 
lands fenced in, leaving no wayside corners for 
gypsy tents, nor rich alfaleria clover for the 
horses ; so we accepted the hospitable welcome of 
a farmer and camped in his grounds, where seven 
bright children surrounded us with friendly 
curiosity, offering us their aid in little ways. 

In all our wanderinos we met with this constant 
kindness : fruits, flowers and dainties were sent 
to our tent by those who knew nothing of us, and 
we could only acknowledge the favors by small 
gifts, a supply of which we always had on hand. 
Offerings of money would have offended the 
generous people who, having in nearly all instances 
had long camp experiences, were prompt in hos- 
pitality to wayside wanderers. 

We rested long after the rough, fatiguing drive 



GTPSY DAYS. 93 

of the Sau Benito and Pinoche, giving the day 
(Sunday) to much needed rest ; but we were a 
little disturbed on making our inventory to find 
ourselves out of nearly all supplies and totally 
out of money, our men having expended theirs 
also. We knew no one within a hundred miles, 
while our needs were immediate and pressing : 
food for our horses, everything for ourselves, and 
wages for our faithful attendants. 

There was nothing for it but "cheek." The 
horses were given an extra grooming, the harness 
a long omitted polishing, the wagon was washed, 
while we put on our best flannels and as many 
evidences of civilized life as one trunk could 
afford. The empty wagon was a light load for 
our four best horses ; they snapped it around the 
corners of HoUister just as the good people were 
going to church, and we were soon in the business 
part of that prosperous place. Inquiries for a 
banker secured the information that the post- 
master was the person to see. He was fortunately 
in his office, where a mass of mail awaited us ; and 
with a confidence we could not have expected, he 
said he would take our checks ; in fact, he wanted 
checks on the Bank of California for various 
amounts, all of which we drew, and soon were in 



94 6TPSY DATS. 

funds again. Some accommodating dealers admitted 
us to their shops, which were of course closed for 
the day, where we found all needed supplies and 
delicacies, laden with which we drove triumph- 
antly back to cook a royal lunch, blessing the 
hospitable men of Hollister. 

Later we mounted our saddle-horses, and, fol- 
lowed by our wagon, rode by cultivated fields a 
few miles to the famous old Pachaco ranch, a 
pleasant camping-place. 

Resuming our march the next morning, it led 
by a well-made road that followed a bright stream 
to its source among the moss-covered rocks. 
Arriving at the summit, we were delighted to see 
a vast expanse open to our view, the rich San 
Joaquin Valley with miles of golden wheat ripen- 
ing in the sun, lying map-like below us ; over and 
beyond rose the ragged sky-line of the Sierra, 
white against the deep blue sky and wonderfully 
beautiful. With map, glass and compass we 
sought to place the Yosemite Valley and its sur- 
rounding peaks and domes, our far-away objective 
point ; but amid a myriad of bristling peaks, no 
one could be identified at the distance we were 
from them, — at least one hundred and twenty 
miles. 



GYFSY DAYS. 95 

In many features, half barren, half luxuriant, 
this view reminds one of the outlook from the 
towers of the Alhambra, where beyond the dusty 
plains of Granada the snow-peaks of the Old 
World Sierra surround the valley where the 
luxurious Moor and fanatic Spaniard hated, 
fought and persecuted, enriching the sun-burned 
soil with the blood of men fitted for better work 
than Crusade or Inquisition cruelty. 

Even in the valley of the San Joaquin, then lying 
before us, there have been quite too frequent 
raids of half -wild " road agents " and Vacqueros, 
who have dashed into villages on their mustang- 
horses, threatened and terrorizing all who offered 
resistance with point-blank shots from repeating 
rifles, and swooped away with all the valuables 
they could carry on their ample saddles. 

Our horses had abundant time to stretch their 
necks and rest before we were willing to leave this 
commanding point, and go downward on a wind- 
ing road to the San Louis ranch, where a small 
army of men were shearing great flocks of sheep. 

Eastward from the San Louis ranch, which is 
on the edge of the valley, we passed through 
seemingly endless wheat. The winter had favored 
it with profuse rains, and it grew in superb 



96 



GYPSY DAYS. 



abundance to the wheel tracks, our horses nipping 
the heads as we drove along-. 

The widely isolated houses of the wheat sec- 
tions were not attractive or home-Hke. 

No tree or shrub grows about them : there is no 
shade, no shelter ; the houses, as Starr King said, 
" have no roots ;" they are simply set on posts, 
with the rubbish of the place cast under them. 
No barns of any extent are needed for housing 
crops, valuable machinery is left anywhere, and 
the cereals are harvested and stacked in the fields 
where they are safe from storms. 

As we were spinning along over the hard roads 
through the wheat, watching races between our 
pointer and jack-rabbits, our leaders made a 
quick spring and carried away the lead-bar ; but 
Ferguson's strong pull wheeled them instantly 
around, and we found ourselves at a stand-still, 
with four horses oddly facing each other. 

Stripping the harnesses from the leaders, we 
put saddles on them and rode to Dutch Flats, 
where we went into port for repairs that detained 
us some hours. 



CHAPTER XV. 

A KINDLY spirit of accommodation alone in- 
duced the wagon-makers of Dutch Flats to make 
us a new set of lead-bars, for they were driven 
with work. Surrounding the shops were the huge 
agricultural implements of the valley, — all novel 
to the Eastern eye, but very efficient on the bound- 
less level plains we were crossing. The crop to 
be harvested was a very fine one, and every avail- 
able machine was being made ready. 

A Californian is ready to do anything but 
walk. It may be a little overstating it to say 
that, if a Cahfornian desire to go half a mile to 
a village, he will go a mile to catch a horse to 
ride on ; but it is not wide of the mark for a 
statement bearing upon a matter connected with 



98 OTPST DATS. 

the booming Pacific slope, where one cannot con- 
vey an adequate idea of the truth without ex- 
panding a good deal. 

All the ploughs, harrows, reapers and imple- 
ments of the Vr'heat-fields are designed to enable 
one man to use the power of a number of horses : 
wages are high, horses abundant and cheap. 

Four or six horses draw a gang of ploughs, with 
a driver occupying a spring seat; four horses 
drive a header that cuts the golden wheat from 
the straw while standing, while especially made 
wagons travel alongside to receive it and convey 
the heavy grain heads to stacks where they await, 
safe from rains, the threshing engines. 

A rainy winter means a good crop ; a good 
crop is the source of great prosperity, while a poor 
one means borrowing money at one per cent, per 
month until good times come again. Little is 
raised beside grain : so the farmer is largely a pur- 
chaser of nearly all his family consumes, and un- 
less money is realized from grain sales, there is 
not much spare cash available. 

A few hours' residence in Dutch Flats furnished 
us a great deal of interesting information regard- 
ing agricultural processes and prospects, as well 
as a set of guaranteed lead-bars, and we spun on 



GYPSY DAYS. 99 

again wiser and safer to Hill's Ferry, where our 
outfit was ferried over the turbulent San Joaquin 
that was brimful from the melting snows of the 
Sierra. The ferrymen would give no informa- 
tion regarding the condition of the roads beyond, 
but were sullen enough to enjoy running the 
Styx transit. Beyond the ferry false channels, 
filled with water, crossed the road, — treacherous 
pools to ford. Even after exploring them with 
our saddle-horses, it was not easy to get our high 
wagon through without flooding its contents. 
Here and there fine Mallard ducks were feeding 
in overflowed lowlands, and enough green-headed 
beauties were bagged to furnish variety to our 
cuisine. 

A few miles of half-dry land, half water, 
brought us to the Merced, a broad, rapid stream, 
turbulent with the water from the Yosemite and 
Sierra snow-fields, now thawing rapidly under the 
warm May sun. Again a flatboat rope-ferry car- 
ried us over to camp under wide-armed oaks 
whose shade and shelter were refreshing after the 
dry, shadeless plains we had been traversing for 
many days. 

Our route the next morning led along the south 
bank of the Merced River for several miles, where 



100 GYPSY DAYS. 

the foliage that marks the river-borders pro- 
tected us from a gale that was blowing. 

On the unsheltered plain in advance we could see 
clouds of dust long before we reluctantly started 
out upon it. We spread a canvas to shelter us from 
the sun and driving sand while we lunched, and 
hurried on over a most unattractive, semi-barren 
country, the home of horned toads and tarantulas. 
Nothing can be more mechanically perfect than 
the trap-door with which this huge spider closes 
his hole, lined within with web, covered without 
with sand to correspond with the adjacent sur- 
face, fitting so as to keep out water and defy 
detection. We pushed a small twig into one 
opened by chance, when the spider seized it and 
pulled as fiercely as a dog would. One of our 
party, in digging a plant from a sandy ledge with 
her fingers, was pulled back rudely (as I saw the 
long legs of a tarantula moving in the soil as its 
burrow was invaded) just in time to avoid a bite 
— a bite that is always painful, if not serious. 
The body of this giant spider is the size of a 
pigeon's &gg, the legs extend four or five inches 
when spread, and it is altogether an object of 
terror and disgust. The horned toad, or more 
properly Hzard, has a certain style in his ugli- 



GYFSY DAYS. 101 

ness, and is an amusing pet. Our petite had a 
four-in-hand of them carefully tethered to stakes 
at our camp, and they lived many months with 
us. 

Very agreeable was the change from the 
stormy, wind-swept, arid plains, to the foliage of 
the foot-hills, where a most beautiful and inter- 
esting succession of varied vegetation is seen, 
changing in a marked manner with increasing 
altitude. 

The manzanita, with dark red stems, seems to 
have no bark, so smooth and round are the di- 
minutive trunks of the shrub that is abundant on 
the lower levels of the foot-hills : while blooming 
and beautiful in May is the ceanothus, or wild 
lilac, with flowers of varying shades of blue. 
Various and very interesting pines are met with. 
The digger pine, with a peculiar cone large with 
hooked points, and the Coulter pine are first 
seen on the outlines of the vast giant forests of 
the higher altitudes. 

Our first camp among the hills at the base of 
the Sierra — hills that would be mountains if not 
so overshadowed — was one to be long remem- 
bered. It was on a knoll that commanded a wide 
view J one side was precipitous, the tops of trees 



102 GYPSY DAYS. 

growing on terrace below terrace, opening no 
view to the bottom of the gorge, a dizzy down 
look, but very striking. The ground we were on 
sloped so decidedly that our wagon was tied fast 
for fear a gust of wind would send it a thousand 
feet or more below, and our tents were staked 
with unusual care, which did not prevent our 
men's tent from starting with a puff of night- 
wind to explore the dark chasms below us. Only 
their prompt action rescued it from an aerial 
flight. 

Our tent was full of flowers new to us, while 
a shrub growing all about imparted the most 
delicious fragrance to the vicinity, an aro- 
matic odor exceeding incense in sensuous gratifi- 
cation. 

As we lingered long over our evening meal, 
the full moon rose from the Sierra peaks, lighting 
so wonderful a scene of wild, romantic character, 
— one so full of all the picturesque features of 
snow-summits, dark forests and suggestive depths, 
that it was late before we were willing to close 
our curtains upon the enchanting view, — one we 
rose early to enjoy again when daybreak opened 
new beauties as the light penetrated the shadows 
below us. 



OYPSY DATS. 103 

Our memories held delightful pictures of camps 
under rustling palmettos, under sighing spruces 
of the far north, amid snow-clad pines and the 
white birches of the great lakes ; but no memory, 
indeed no fancy, can equal the perfection of the 
camp-life attainable on the Sierra slopes. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Mariposa suggested the early gold craze. 
The town, with one-story shops provided with 
buUet-proof iron shutters, has been a miners' cen- 
tre for buying supplies, for gambling away the 
fruits of success and for glorious sprees; but 
rocker-gold mining seems now to have passed 
into the hands of Chinamen, the profits being 
only a fair reward for hard labor. 

Some miles beyond Mariposa we found a way- 
side halting-place where milk and cake were 
daintily served. Here we were told that we could 
reach Clark's, the "Big Tree Station," before 
dark (it was then three o'clock), and that the 
summit before us was but seven hundred feet : so 
we pushed on confidently, although we had a 



GYPSY DAYS. 105 

lame horse and were iisino- our best saddle-horse 

o 

ill the harness. 

Onward and upward we pushed, new trees, new 
flowers and novel forms of rock arresting our 
attention during frequent halts. As we ascended, 
the size of the trees increased rapidly. Single 
specimens, larger than we had ever seen, appeared 
in the thick growth that clothed the mountain- 
side. Golden mosses, vines and lichens, all beau- 
tiful, made us forget time until the sun was near 
the crest of the distant coast range, when we con- 
sulted our aneroid barometer to learn that we 
were some three thousand feet above the little 
lunching chalet, yet the summit was not in sight. 

The road was a very fine one ; at times it led 
far into the mountain-side to complete the circuit 
of a ravine, crossing narrow gorges and laughing- 
brooks, then out into the light again around bold 
spurs of rock, each turn showing a more extended 
view, far over the San Joaquin Valley, to the 
coast range, where we had driven so many days, 
until, as the sun went down, we thought we could 
see it through the break of the highland, made 
by Monterey Bay, sink into the Pacific. 

The last rays lighted a most novel scene. "We 
had finally reached the summit and the home of 



106 GYPSY DAYS. 

the great trees, which stood tall and stately, some 
of them covered with golden moss that made them 
resemble the gilded pijies of a great organ, others 
dark and sombre. They were not the giant se- 
quoia, but the hardly less impressive sugar-pine, 
Douglas spruce, cedars, and their giant kin that 
so overwhelm us with surprise and annul our pre- 
conceived ideas of forest-trees. There were 
fallen trees about us whose mammoth stems prone 
on the earth could not be overlooked from our 
saddles. In the deepening gloom they seemed 
more monstrous than they v/ere, to our unaccus- 
tomed eyes, and we felt conscious of sensations 
like those of Gulliver in Brobdignag. 

Masses of snow still rested on the road, to the 
terror of our horses. Raised in Southern Cali- 
fornia, they had never seen winter, and from this 
novel substance under their feet, or from scenting 
some wild beast, they screamed with fright, the 
thrilling sound a horse rarely utters, — one we had 
never heard before, nor wish to listen to again. 

We had to lead them over the soft path of pine 
needles ; and to induce them to cross the bridges 
over the mountain torrents, that were sheets of 
white foam, required all of our skill and patience, 
as they called and answered one another ; but 



GYFSY DAY>S. 107 

when it grew dark, they surrendered themselves 
to manaofement with a trust that was almost child- 
like, and pressed as closely as possible to our 
shoulders, as we felt for the path we could not 
see. Horses that have been picketed about a tent, 
fed from the table, as ours often were, are com- 
panions day and night, and are ridden far away 
from their native homes and familiar scenes, 
assume relations of affection and dependence that 
are very interesting. They become more like 
dogs, clinging closely to the movements of the 
party if permitted, and wild with alarm if sepa- 
rated from it. 

Knowing nothing of the long road down the 
mountain, our progress was slow and uncertain 
until the moon rose, shedding a faint light through 
the trees that held their dark tops often two or 
three hundred feet above us. At last we saw the 
gleam of the lights at " Clark's," a snug hotel ; 
but Madame and La Petite dechned to seek the 
shelter of a house, late as it was ; so feeling for a 
level plateau with our feet, we turned aside into 
the forest, where in half an hour we were as much 
at home as ramblers can be. 

By the light of a reflecting lamp we found a 
few sugar-pine cones, each one a handful. A 



108 GYPSY DAYS. 

dozen made a brilliant light which La Petite kept 
supplied with fresh fuel, while the horses were 
picketed and the tents pitched. Really as rapidly 
as it can be written, a gloomy forest-nook was 
transformed into a cheery home, where over a 
roaring stove various good things were cooking, 
while a camp-fire illuminated the interior of our 
tent with a glow that brought out vividly the 
warmth and color of the gay blankets and crim- 
son cushions. The transition from darkness, fa- 
tigue and anxiety to surroundings so luxurious 
and cheerful always accented our camping after a 
long day's travel, and enhanced the enjoyment of 
food and rest. Weary as we were, we sat for 
hours burning the huge cones to flash light far 
into the forest, and chatting over the day's events 
before we dropped back on our blankets to sleep. 
It was late before we awoke the next morninof to 
see, before we had separated our dreams from the 
reality of our situation, the face of an Indian 
squaw steadily peering at us through the folds of 
the tent. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

« Clark's," or the " Big Tree Station," is on the 
Merced route to the Yosemite Valley, and the near- 
est point to the Mariposa Grove of " big trees." 
Stages daily passed our camp laden with tourists, 
nearly all of whom were making the trip as rap- 
idly as possible, eager to see the salient points of 
the valley and be off and away. 

Yet there were many inducements to Hnger and 
enjoy the great forests, to breathe the air so full of 
the soft odors peculiar to evergreen woodlands, 
and rest surrounded by superb scenes. Winter 
amid the mountains is very much in earnest. The 
fall of snow blocks the roads until often the only 
egress is on snow-shoes ; but May sees a beautiful 
spring casting lavish favors of verdure and bloom 



110 GYPSY DAYS. 

broadcast, and those who can Hnger among the 
ravines have loveliness all about them. 

Four miles away, through the sombre forest by 
a trail that saddle-horses can follow, the giant se- 
quoias stand. We mounted our horses, — Fergu- 
son with our gipsy girl of seven years before him 
on sure-footed Sam, Madame on her faithful Billy 
Gray, the cook following on Jerry, with a hamper 
of lunch, — and set out, climbing leisurely along 
the trail, passing trees of ten and twelve feet 
diameter constantly, sugar-pines straight and 
cylindrical, reaching from two hundred and fifty 
to three hundred feet into the air, with room 
under their lowest branches for the monarchs of 
Eastern woodlands. 

Under the shade, bursting up at the edge of 
the snow that still remained, we saw for the first 
time the snow-flower, a gorgeous bloom very del- 
icate in detail. A plant like an asparagus head, 
but much larger, an inch and a half or two inches 
in diameter, pushes up through the soil without a 
leaf, and when about six inches high, opens a soft 
crimson mass of flowers, in character resembling 
a hyacinth, with encircling ribbons of scarlet and 
black. It is of extreme beauty, and one can but 
regret that it is difficult, if not quite impossible, 



GTPSY DAYS. 



Ill 



to have them show their glories where more lovers 
of flowers can enjoy them. 

Our pointer started a deer from his midday 
rest to bound before us, and beyond doubt, many 
of the animals of the Sierra were at home among 
the ravines we followed. We brought no guide, 
escaping the annoyance of visiting wonderful 
things "personally conducted," but found our 
way along the trail that evidently was not often 
followed at that time. 

We came unexpectedly upon the cinnamon- 
colored sequoias, — marked trees from their pecu- 
liar bark and its tint, and extremely beautiful in 
outline and character. So perfectly are they 
proportioned that the first impression is rather 
one of great beauty than size. Indeed it took 
time, study and comparison to reahze the immen- 
sity of the stems towering so lightly in the air. 
Two were quite near us, standing on the opposite 
bank of the stream. This bank was fifteen or 
twenty feet high, but the vast roots extended 
from top to bottom, grasping it as if it was a hil- 
lock, with massive interlacing roots that alone 
could uphold the towering trees that held their 
heads on high as if defying time and storms for- 
ever. These trees were about fifteen feet in clear 



112 QYPSY DAYS. 

diameter, not large members of the giant family, 
but among the most perfect, tempting us to long 
study before passing on to others. One of the 
same size, or larger, was prone upon the earth, 
giving a greater impression of magnitude than 
those that were standino;. 

Our rambles eventually brought us to the 
famous " Grizzly Giant," the patriach : thirty- 
four feet in diameter, carrying immense size with 
slight diminution to the limbs which were well 
toward the top. These wonders of the arborical 
world do not disappoint the most exalted antici- 
pations of their grandeur ; they are so truly vast 
that long study of their towering forms enhances 
the delight they inspire, and one leaves them with 
sincere regret. 

Onward, Yosemite-ward : the road is through 
glorious woodland with wild mountain scenery of 
constantly increasing boldness before the eye. 
Each succeeding summit gives more definite sug- 
gestion of the wonderful beauties of the valley, 
so that one reaches Inspiration Point by steps 
admirably calculated to lead up to the highest 
enjoyment of this first look into the great chasm. 
It is a view that perhaps has no equal ; it is so 
harmonious in altitude and extent, so surprising 



GYPSY DAYS. 113 

in combination, that for a time it pours sensations 
upon the eye that the mind fails to comprehend. 
The vision has to learn new lessons. To regard 
what looks like fine moss under shadowy cliffs as 
huge forests under cloven mountain precipices, — 
to see in a silver thread the winding Merced River, 
— to recognize a wisp of white mist as a rushing 
fall of fabulous altitude, and a field of seemingly 
tiny features, as a valley seven miles long ! 

We were not hurried on as stage tourists usu- 
ally were, but were free to take ample time to 
study this comprehensive outlook of the varied 
wonders we were later to enjoy in detail, until 
they should become familiar features, ever more 
beautiful as they became better known. 

Leaving our men and horses to follow, we 
walked down the mountain-side with new glimpses 
of the most exquisite character opening at every 
step, forgetful of time, lingering until night was 
upon us, when we reached the torrent of the 
Bridal Veil Fall, which was so swollen by water 
from the snow-fields far above us, that it was un- 
safe to try the ford, a very rocky one with a cur- 
rent of high velocity. We were some miles from 
any building, out of food for our horses and 
short of many necessaries ; but there was no get- 



114 GTPST DAYS. 

ting on, so we turned from the road to a thicket 
near the foot of the Bridal Veil Fall, where we 
soon had a snug camp-fire and fragrant balsam 
couches. 

Lying before the camp-fire we looked up at the 
great fall, which, in the night, seemed to come 
from the zenith : swaying, rushing, thundering, 
as white as snow, indeed almost luminous. From 
cliffs nine hundred feet above us it sprang, and 
came without a ledge to check its fall. 

At times the torrent poured directly down, 
fleecy and quiet ; then with a cannon-like boom it 
would sway far away to be wafted back again, so 
closely that the spray fell upon us and the tree 
glistened with the mist-drops in the fire-light. It 
was a weird, ghost-like presence, one we watched 
for hours, until the moon shone over the towering 
cliffs to dispel some of the mystery of the sway- 
ing form, while revealing still new beauties. As 
the frost of the night locked up the water of the 
snow-buried mountain tops, the power of the 
stream was slightly checked ; but all night long 
the ground trembled and the' boom of the torrent 
prevented us from forgetting, even in sleep, the 
white -robed Spirit of the Sierra. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The great cataract was not the creation of a 
dream, but on our early awakening was coming 
as white and beautiful as ever from the blue sky. 
The volume of water was lessened by the cold in 
the mountains, so we hastened our packing to 
make an early crossing of the ford that had 
baffled us the night before. As our last things 
were being stored, a large open coach drawn by 
six horses dashed through the river, and up the 
road on a gallop, bearing a gay party of tourists 
who waved salutation and cheered us as they 
sjjun along. 

They were going out, and in a few days the 
individuals of the merry partie des voyageurs 
would be scattered far and wide, — to Australia, 



116 GYPSY DAYS. 

China, Oregon or the East, recounting in various 
tongues the beauties of the Yosemite Valley. 

The ford was a deep one filled with bowlders, 
the powerful current was rolling on all the time, 
the water was up to the box of the wagon ; but 
the ladies were on the high driver's-seat, and our 
perishables piled up on the rear seat out of 
danger, with the cook precariously balanced on the 
summit of the collection. The writer prospected 
the ford on horseback, and all passed through 
safely, finding an excellent road winding between 
the Merced River and the south walls of the 
mountains. Sunrise is practically a midday event : 
so tall are the lofty wails that encircle the valley ; 
and we drove merrily along under the shadows of 
the towering cliffs with gorgeous views opening 
momentarily before us, seeking a spot for a per- 
manent camp, embarrassed only in selection by 
the myriad of charming situations that offered 
rival attractions. 

Our choice fell upon a sloping plain under the 
shadow of the Sentinel Rock, an obelisk shaft 
that pierced the sky three thousand feet above us. 
A small stream rustling from the craggy summit 
dissipated into spray by failing from rock to 
rock, came rushing by our tent, brilliant, pure 



GYFSY DAYS. 117 

and cold, while a few scattered pines afforded 
shade for the few hours of midday during which 
the sun peered over the royal summits that shut 
in the sky to a narrow limit. 

From our well chosen encampment, six water- 
falls were in sight, including the great Yosemite 
Fall. Indeed it was hardly necessary to move to 
see many of the most exquisite features of this 
unequalled spot ; so we spread out our blankets 
and cushions, and rested hour after hour, realiz- 
ing the vastness and wonderful characteristics of 
the varied scene. The Yosemite Fall, two thou- 
sand six hundred feet high, was opposite to us, 
brilliant in full sunlight, — a wonderful feature. 
The sound of the rushing waters filled the whole 
valley, and every few moments booming ex- 
plosions came from the torrents, echoing like 
peals of artillery over the continuous roar of the 
cataract. These loud reports strike the ear 
when the streams are full, day and night. They 
are attributed to various causes, such as great 
rocks falling over, or more probably to the 
sudden release of compressed air which finds 
vent when the torrent sways rapidly away to one 
side or the other, as it does constantly. We have 
noticed the same waving aside, like a curtain 



118 mrsY DAYS. 

blown by tbe wind, at tbe Staubach Fall in 
Switzerland and the same detonations, but in 
a less degree, as might be expected when the 
falls are compared: the Swiss fall being but 
six hundred feet high, or less than one quarter 
the altitude of the famous Sierra cataract. 

The fall of stones at the time of high-water 
renders it unsafe to approach the foot of either 
fall without great caution, as we found after 
having been exposed to danger from fragments 
of rock that came with meteoric force, to be 
shattered on the cliffs about us as we stood near 
the Yosemite. When our gaze turned from the 
Yosemite Cascade, the great granite precipice of 
El Capitan was a feature that was of endless 
interest. From the lofty summit of this brilliant 
crag a small rivulet leaped into the air, — falling, 
falling, falling, becoming first spray and then 
white foam, then from its velocity a thin almost 
invisible mist, to sway with the varying wind 
which at times caught the impalpable stream and 
carried it cloud-like over the mountain. Often 
the stream was so dissipated that it could be 
traced only by the shadow it cast on the white 
rock, before which it was wafted like the spirit 
of a cascade. Amid all these beautiful things 



aYP,SY DAYS. 119 

our situation was a most fortunate one, quite 
remote from hotels, leaving us free to study the 
gigantic features without any distracting com- 
panionship, or intruding suggestions from guides 
or peddlers. 

Ordinary tourists were hampered by more or 
less annoying restrictions as to guides, saddle- 
horses and routes ; they were often hurried to 
keep up with the impatient souls who never 
linger to enjoy impressions, and nearly always 
were accompanied by a gushing element more or 
less pronounced, ready to essay putting the 
wonders — so full of inspiring suggestion — into 
superlatives of especial unfitness. 

All these vexations we escaped ; indeed our 
tent was ordinarily as secluded as if we were the 
discoverers of the valley. Beside a daily stage, 
there was little passing our retreat to remind us 
of companionship other than that of the stu- 
pendous works of nature. 

All tended to the perfection of gypsy life, 
especially as we did not permit the tempting 
points about us to so hasten our inspection of 
them as to expose our minds too rapidly to the 
intense impressions they must make on any one 
who is sensitive to the beauties and wonders of 



120 GYPSY DAYS. 

nature. There is jDrobably no accessible spot 
where vast and mas^nificent combinations of 
mountain and valley are so interwoven with the 
beauties of calm and falling water, forest, cliif 
and dome as in the valley we were camping in ; 
and quietly as we lived among the wonders, we 
could but be at times bewildered and over- 
whelmed with all that excited awe, wonder and 
admiration, nor did the deep impress of our 
surroundings lessen as day by day we became 
familiar with them. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Our breakfast, served in the open air under a 
low-spreading pine, was a very different event 
from the commonplace beginning of the day 
within the confines of civilization. 

Sleep in tents leaves the gypsy rambler with 
a fresh, wide-awake vigor that seldom favors one 
when aroused from the soft beds, curtained 
chambers and artificial heat of even the most 
perfectly ventilated houses ; it has a restoring 
influence that has not only " knitted up the 
ravelled sleeves of care," not only made good the 
waste and weariness of a day forever gone, but 
one that gilds the glad possession of another 
morning with keen appreciation, high hope and 
physical enjoyment. 



122 GYPSY DAYS. 

About US, around our gypsy home, our horses 
were tethered, watching our movements with an 
intelligence that comes only from nomadic com- 
panionship. Billy Gray, if loosed, would take 
his feed-box in his mouth and bring it right 
side up like a contribution-box, soliciting an extra 
treat of grain ; and if refused he would com- 
mence a career of mischief that only ended when 
he was ignominiously led to his tether-pin, after 
having burned his nose on the stove-pipe and 
upset many things, the cook's temper included. 

At the time of our lingering in the valley the 
sun's increasing power was unlocking the streams, 
opening the buds, painting the flowers, giving 
rainbow color to the spray from the lofty cat- 
aracts, and awakening the animal and vegetable 
life that, tented under billows of snow, had slept 
away a long winter. All was fresh, fragrant 
and vigorous. Life, motion and power pulsated 
in sky, water and sod, filling our ears with the 
roar of the cascades, our eyes with myriad 
beauties, our lungs with the spring-breath of the 
w^oodland laden with the perfumes of bursting 
bud and opening flower, and our hearts with 
gratitude at being permitted thus — an undis- 
turbed little family circle in a tented home — to 



GYPST DAYS. 128 

give ourselves to enjoying scenes that are un- 
equalled. 

It is difficult to realize how much of the 
impress of the valley must be lost to those who 
are within hotels — all bustle and confusion from 
arriving and departing tourists; to the parties 
who bargain for strange horses, follow different 
guides, invade such sanctuaries as the Mirror 
Lake in company with half a hundred sharp- 
voiced "personally conducted" wanderers, and 
are hastened here and there to see wonders that 
must forever float in their minds as mixed phan- 
toms of confused succession. 

Our days were half idle, given to gazing at 
the cataracts, the cKffs and domes, watching from 
couches of fragrant balsam the shadows come 
and go, and letting the delicious influences of 
the magnificence about us make their slow 
impress until they became so deep and lasting 
that through the memories of many a later 
wandering the scenes of the Yosemite come as 
fresh and shapely to mind as the development of 
a well-exposed photographic plate. 

Occasionally, as a mild form of industry, we 
took trout from the clear pools of the Merced 
Eiver, — a welcome addition to our bill of fare, 



124 GYPSY DAYS. 

but a less delicate fish by far than their speckled 
cousins of the Eastern States. 

Our horses proved sure-footed and more 
powerful than the ponies that are secured for 
chmbing the trails to the high points of interest. 
The trails are very crooked, narrow and gener- 
ally uncertain, often passing 23oints where a 
stumbling horse might throw a rider a thousand 
feet over ragged rocks. At first it is dizzy 
climbing, causing as much fear as pleasure to 
nervous persons ; but the wonderful scenes soon 
overcome all timidity, and equestrians learn to 
leave their horses to pick their own way, which 
they do with great caution. 

Our first ascent was to Glacier Point, — an 
excursion giving a most comprehensive series of 
views, including the especially noted points of 
the high Sierras, fine down-looks into the valley, 
and an extensive survey of the famous domes 
and great peaks of the ragged ranges that 
bewilder the eye with the vast perspectives of 
rock and snow that make a superb sky-line to the 
far east. 

Union Point first affords a resting-place two 
thousand three hundred feet above the valley. 
This rocky plateau commands a bird's-eye view 



GYFSY DAYS. 125 

of the valley, includiiig the Yosemite Fall, Mirror 
Lake and a hundred great features, and richly 
rewards the toil of the ascent should no wonders 
be found beyond; but when after a rest the 
tourist passes on to Sentinel Dome and Glacier 
Point, new views unfold themselves that are not 
included in the sweep of the valley itself. 

Directly in front of Glacier Point, beyond a 
deep precipitous chasm, the magnificent cataracts 
of the Vernal and Nevada falls are superb 
features : one above the other in a wild ravine, 
through which the snow-fed river pours from the 
high Sierra, falling two thousand feet in two 
miles, leaping at the Vernal Fall four hundred 
feet, and at the Nevada six hundred feet in 
cascades of driven foam. All the setting of 
these cataracts is worthy of them : towerino- 
granite domes, riven peaks, deep gorges with 
dark foliage in such spots as earth is found to 
support trees, and over all the grand Sierra sum- 
mits, white with mantles of snow that accent their 
picturesque forms against the deep blue sky of 
Nevada. Part of the way to these points we 
went on horseback through cuttings in snow so 
deep that we could not reach the tops of the 
drifts with our whips while in the saddle. Men 



126 GYPSY DAYS. 

were extending these tunnel-like cuttings, but 
we were compelled to leave our steeds and go on 
foot over fields of hard snow that were of un- 
known depths, where a slip might send one over 
ledges that crown dizzy heights. 

Our days were full of varied pleasure ; each 
night developed new beauties as the moonlight 
fell on the snow-white cascades that with their 
constant roar were ever present, filling even our 
sleep with consciousness of their ceaseless power. 

No one pen can describe the mysterious valley 
so long hidden in the Sierra fastnesses; the 
geologist, the botanist, artist, poets, scientists, 
and gypsies, — all may give pages filled with 
attempts to tell the story of the valley, and 
abandon the vain task, leaving more untold. 
The wildest fancy can scarcely suggest a fan- 
tastic feature that does not exist, and it is indeed 
one place where the longing for wild and infinite 
beauty is fully satisfied. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Materfal considerations break rudely into 
the most romantic moments. Our days were fall 
of delight, but our hours for vagabonding were 
drawing to an end. Hay (barley straw) was 
seventy dollars a ton and hard to get. Our 
horses missed the nutritious alfaleria of more 
fertile lands, and showed that they would not 
long endure the privation of valley rations com- 
bined with mountain climbing; so with deep 
regret we folded our tents to go, after many days 
of delicious lingering, once more to strange 
scenes. Our route led us, by the bold front of 
El Capitan, through an avalanche of ice and snow 
that had just come over the Fall of the Virgin's 
Tears (rather abundant and muddy tears they 



128 



GYPSY BAYS. 



were) and on over the mountain ranges north of 
the Merced River, which was roaring savagely 
far below us. The varying views before us were 
very grand, but tame in comparison with those 




COMIXCr OUT OK I HE VaT-T.KY. 

we were leaving ; and we all felt, in looking back 
to the last glimpse of the Half Dome and Mount 
Starr King, that the vivid enjoyments we had so 
fully realized would long be more actual in 
memory than any new ones we could anticipate. 
Our outward route was by the then newly 



arrsY DAYS. 129 

completed Coulterville Road, a well-engineered 
and perfectly made toll-road. Soon after leaving 
the valley we passed the deep ford of the 
Cascades in sight of the falls, which are very 
handsome, so grand that they woukl be a marked 
feature in any spot less full of greater attrac- 
tions. 

For some miles the road is high on the north 
side of the Caiion of the Merced, which, raging 
with the flood of spring, fills the air with its 
ceaseless roar. When at last it disappeared from 
view among crags and forast, we were for the 
first moment since entering the valley in a quiet 
woodland, where the stillness was a novelty, — we 
having been so long amid the perpetual boom 
and rush of falling waters that our ears had 
become accustomed to it. 

From the high passes north of the Merced 
there were six thousand fett of descent in our 
favor as we drove westward ; and over the good 
road we went famously, except when we halted 
to g-ather our last souvenirs of the g-reat forest, — 
huge cones, branches covered v/itli golden moss, 
sequoia-bark from trees shattered by lightning, 
and flowers ; of the latter we had found two 
hundred and thirty diii'erant kinds (all Avild), 



180 GYPSY DAYS. 

many peculiar to California, among them abund- 
ant specimens of rare beauty. 

At midday we passed the Merced Grove of 
Sequoia Gigantea, a fine collection of the giant 
trees, containing many of handsome form, but 
none equal in size to those of the Mariposa 
Grove. There were however among them speci- 
mens of twenty feet clear diameter, larger by far 
than any trees found away from the Sierra 
slopes. 

Ferguson's rapid driving was admirable, — 
making us feel safe when swinging around curves 
so short the leaders were sometimes half out of 
sight, with precipices yawning far below the 
narrow ledges we were upon. 

Thirty-four miles we passed, amid lovely 
scenes, camping at Bower Cave, where deep 
among the rocks a subterraneous pool afforded 
interest for several hours' inspection. 

On again — through low half -barren foot-hills, 
passing hydraulic mining-fields — to La Grange, 
our last camp, on ground so hard that an iron 
tent-pin could not be driven. So great was the 
fear on the part of the farmers of fire reaching 
the vast grain-fields, that we could only get 
permission to set our stove by placing it on the 



GYF8Y DAYS. 131 

gravel In the bend of a stream where it was 
watched with anxious eyes. 

It was the twenty-second of May, but a sharp 
shower fell ; the day before there was snow on 
the foot-hills, — an unusual event for the season. 

Our gypsy days were ending : this was to be 
the last day of our drive of seven hundred miles 
amid all varieties of scene and aU classes of 
people ; so we abandoned, not without regret, 
our camping traps, our stove utensils, and the 
many contrivances that had secured us luxuries 
and comforts no matter how remote our camp or 
forbidden our surroundings. 

With little to pack and a light wagon we were 
early on the road, — one of very slender interest, — 
passing through grain-fields, with here and there 
a house on posts, having little look of a home, 
shadeless and entirely unattractive. At lunch 
we halted at one of these houses, where kind 
permission was accorded our cook to use the 
family stove in preparing our lunch. Awaiting 
it with keen appetites, for an hour we had a 
novel experience of climate. 

The sun was high and powerful, the air so 
clear that there was very little refraction, shad- 
ows were dark and sharp-edged, while the cool 



132 GTFSY DAYS. 

wind from the Pacific blew a steady blast. We 
were too hot in the sun : so we sought the only- 
shelter available, which was the unromantic north 
side of a barn, where in three minutes we were 
chilled ; we went back to get warm on the sunny 
side and were soon sun-scorched ; again we fled 
to the shade, only to be driven back into the 
burnino- heat, and so it was with the ludicrous 
result that we marched in procession around the 
barn, chilled, burned and chilled again, until we 
could lunch and drive on. 

The twin peaks of Mt. Diavolo were the only 
picturesque features before us during the after- 
noon, and our most novel sensations were driving 
into Stockton to b3 once more amid a crowd on a 
paved street. 

Here we took a train for San Francisco, 
leaving our outfit to come on the steamboat. 
Early the next morning our cavalcade clattered 
into the spacious court of the Palace Hotel, where 
sleepy servants gazed with surprise at the un- 
usual spectacle the gypsy outfit presented in that 
aristocratic precinct, while the porters sent our 
multifarious traps to our apartments. 

Ferguson deftly swung the four horses out of 
the court, the cook followed on Billy Grey to a 



GYPSY DAYS. 133 

sales-stable where our pets were sold to go to 
safe homes, and our gjpsying was ended: our 
little party of three — nut-brown, happy and 
hardy, thanks to the ah' of the sea, the exercise 
of the coast range, the sunshine of the valleys 
and the breath of the pines on the Sierra slopes ! 



;; CHAPTER XXI. 

GYPSY DAYS IN FLORIDA. 

Fleeing from the cold of the north in January, 
we found ourselves steaming rapidly away from 
one of the long wharves of the lower St. John on 
a small impetuous little yacht, one of the busy, 
bustling kind, imbued with the restless spirit that 
small things usually possess and freely exhibit, 
to show that after all size is not everything. 

It was a day for idling, — the rapid steam-puff 
was not in harmony with our inclinations : so, lean- 
ing over the small bow deck that just held a bell 
and two easy-chairs, the order was given to old 
Paul, the well-known pilot, to slow up, and Paul 
conveyed the same to the engineer, when the 
sharp ripple at the bow lost its rustle, the engine 



0YP8Y DAYS. 135 

breathed more comfortably, and with a wide, lazy 
wake spreading far behind on the golden river, 
we lay back in our chairs and determined to 
abandon northern haste and learn laziness in 
earnest, in fact to do nothing as diligently as pos- 
sible. Indeed, the lesson was very easy. The slow- 
drifting clouds, the currentless river, the gentle 
wind, and all our surroundings were peaceful and 
free from suggestion of haste, and coming as we 
had from driven clouds and hurrying storms, it 
was enough to revel in sunshine and repose, leav- 
ing for another time action and progress. 

The afternoon found us at Palatka, where the 
larder was reinforced, ice purchased and a skiff 
obtained. At twilight we pushed on, turning 
into the narrower and more picturesque channels, 
where the forest crowded out to the water s edg^e 
and sprays of flowering vines hung far over the 
flood, lost in vain admiration of their mirrored 
beauty and grace. 

The water was deep even to the shore, enabling 
us to cut the bends of the stream close under the 
foliage that rustled with the breeze made by our 
motion, while views of remarkable beauty opened 
every moment before us, each in deeper shade and 
more mysterious beauty as the rapid darkness 



136 GYPSY DAYS. 

came on. As later every form on shore was lost 
in the dense blackness of nighty it became a source 
of wonder to us how old Paul, our colored pilot, 
could thread the devious and narrow channel ; but 
on we sped, only halting inshore once to let one 
of the great river-boats go by. The huge thing 
came panting like a leviathan breathing flame, 
with wide-open furnaces casting broad bands of 
light over the water, and rows of colored signal- 
lamps far above the bright cabin wdndows ; she 
made a striking scene against the night as she 
sped on, bearing a gay throng of pleasure-seekers 
to the upper river. 

We were not anxious, however, to get on. 
There was a wealth of beauty, by the way, that 
few on the great steamer would see, and after 
feeling our way for a time, old Paul rang to 
" Stop her ! " " Back her ! " and our little boat 
drifted against a wood-wharf, that no one but our 
pilot could have found, with no sign to mark it 
under the forest blackness, and here tied up to a 
decayed dock; we did not envy the passengers 
g-oino" " on time." 

Former experience told hov/ there would be a 
rush for seats and a scramble for food, and a 
long cue of tired men and women waiting to learn 



GYPSY DAYS. 137 

from a patient purser that there were no more 
staterooms, no more beds on the floor, and no 
more blankets for a curl-up under the dining- 
tables. We were not at the mercy of negro 
stewardesses, nor to be snubbed by magnificent 
waiters ; we were as independent as chimney- 
sweeps in a crowd. Your correspondent was 
admiral of the fleet (steamer and two skiffs), 
sailing-master, " bo'sun light and midshipmite," 
and chief of ordinance (one Scott and one Rem- 
ington), while Madame was in command of our 
cabin passengers (maid and one child), where 
she reigned supreme over a culinary department 
consisting of two spirit-lamps at night and a fire 
on shore in the daytime. 

Just at the time we tied up, hot tea was singing 
on one lamp, hot soup (thanks to Liebig) on the 
other, and with rolls, devilled meats and canned 
luxuries there was a good supper laid away, and 
the events of the day came in pleasant retrospect 
through the cheering medium of sparkling wine. 

At dawn we clambered upon the old wharf. 
A wood road ran back from it through the forest 
to a settler's home. Birds were singing gaily, 
among them our familiar summer friends ; but 
many strange notes came from the low growth. 



138 OTPST DATS. 

Following what seemed to be the sound of an 
axe, a woodpecker was found, an earlier and more 
industrious workman than the lazy crackers. It 
was one of the large fellows that are sometimes 
seen on southern trees : as large as a teal-duck, a 
gay handsome bird, with a bill like iron, and a 
head that enables him to achieve the feat long 
considered impossible, — of sawing wood with a 
hammer. Ducks, herons, water-turkeys, ospreys, 
and other birds followed the narrow water in 
their flight, shying above the tree tops as they 
found us occupying their solitude, and saying 
hard things of us in their own way, while high 
up on a venerable cypress limb sat several ducks, 
rather an unusual sight, and there they sat while 
we made a fire and cooked our breakfast, and 
only moved off when a ball went very near them. 
Nothing can equal this mode of enjoying the 
Southern rivers. From the lofty decks of the 
steamers a great deal is seen ; but every moment 
one is hurried ruthlessly away from some spot 
where there is every temptation to linger, and 
then left to while away hours at some landing 
v/here preceding crowds have gathered every 
flower and alarmed every bird with pistols and 
parasols. 



GYPSY DAYS. 139 

After a leisurely breakfast on shore, as free 
from care as gypsies are, we went on board, put 
easy-chairs on deck, laid our guns before us, and 
steamed on through scenes of great beauty and 
variety, now and then getting a duck Avhich was 
picked up and enjoyed by our men, who cooked 
them in the furnace under the boiler. 

About noon we reached Lake George and 
found it very rough ; but leaving the channel we 
followed an unusual route through the islands 
and ventured out, our yacht rolling a good deal, 
but we soon came under the west shore and found 
shelter. About midway on the shore is one of 
the wonderful springs that are so beautiful in 
Florida. Leaving the yacht, we poled in a flat 
skiff over a shallow bar, and up the stream that 
flows from the spring. It passes through water^ 
lilies that were swarming with duck and rail, 
while in the water that was as clear as air were 
shoals of fish : bass, mullet, long savage-looking 
garfish and huge catfish. They would not bite 
any bait we offered, but were easily punched with 
an oar, and with a spear numbers could have 
been obtained. Half a mile from the lake the 
stream ended in a curve under a high bank, and 
here by hard rowing we found the spring, and 



140 GYPSY DAYS. 

looked down into a white walled cliasm through 
water that seemed too ethereal to support our 
skiff. It was a dizzy downlook into this deep 
pool, where long weeds writhed and swayed forty 
or fifty feet helow us in the swell of the current, 
and where shoals of huge fish would swim out 
from under rocks and be swept rapidly about like 
shadows. The water rose with such force as to 
make a high boiling centre, where skilful rowing 
could poise a boat, only to slide away with a 
rapid balloon-like motion that was not quite 
pleasant. Fine palmettos had surrounded this 
wonderful pool with a fit and beautiful shade ; 
but they were just then a heap of smouldering 
ashes, having been cut away for cotton ground 
that might better have been taken from the 
unlimited forest beyond the small clearing. Van- 
dal hands have rarely marred a more weird scene, 
nor ignorance more surely damaged the value of 
a rare possession ; but so it is in Florida. All 
hands — from the jewelled one that wrote a lady's 
name in a font at St. Augustine, to the cracker's 
horny palm — are against the ancient, the curious 
and the beautiful, and ere long the shore may 
bear quack-medicine names, and old walls fall 
before want of taste and give way to pine- 



GYPSY DAYS. 141 

fences as has the old and mysterious " Treasury 
wall " at St. Augustine. 

Full of regret at the useless sacrifice of these 
trees, we let our boat drift down the stream, start- 
ling again the water-fowl and the fish. A pale- 
faced cracker-boy came alongside in a dug-out 
and tried to sell a wild turkey for a price that 
fell very rapidly ; but we left it with him, as 
hardly to be cooked over a spirit-lamp or to be 
safely done by the fireman under the boiler. 

Steaming on we found the mouth of the Upper 
St. John, now a narrow river, flowing with some 
current through dense forest, where new forms 
of vegetable life abound and seem to strive to 
cover the river with plants that float in miniature 
islands with the stream, and vines that reach out 
like carpets of green from the leaf-laden shores. 

Animal life did not abound here as it did a 
few years before, but was more abundant by 
far than now. Every man and boy on a steam- 
boat does " Shooting in Florida " with some arm : 
pistol, champagne-corks, orange-pips or rifles ; 
and no bird, from the sparrow to the carrion 
buzzard, is safe, except in the abundance of bad 
shooting. All are wild and flit on just out of 
range, and even the stupid alligator slips from 



142 GYPSY DAYS. 

his mud bank when the steamers come laboring 
against the stream. 

The tropical character of this noble river is 
chiefly seen above Lake George. North of this 
lake the northwest gales — the cold storm winds 
of the country — pass only overland from the 
frozen north, and in mid-winter sometimes bring 
a very unpleasant chill, — one that renders orange- 
culture precarious, blighting in some years the 
new buds ; but south of this, the winds having 
any westerly direction pass over more or less of 
the Gulf, and are disarmed by the warmth and 
moisture of that body of water of their blighting 
chill and dryness, until about Enterprise cold and 
frost are practically unknown : palms, palmettos, 
bananas and orange-trees assume forms of vigor 
that render them very beautiful to the Northern 
eye, and the refugee from winter finds an assured 
j)romise of gentle air and golden sunshine. 

The river is very crooked, bending sharply 
around points, cutting deeply into the banks, 
forming deep boiling pools, where fish are seen 
breaking constantly. The shores are usually 
low ; a point ten feet high is known as a bluff, 
and such are sought by settlers for homes, pos- 
sessing all the freedom from miasma, insects, and 



GYPSY DATS. 143 

dampness that can be expected where the sun of 
almost perpetual summer breeds during many 
months a full crop of annoyances. The dryest 
and most desirable places are found upon the 
shell-mounds, where one strata upon another of 
shells forms elevations of very considerable extent. 
These shell-formations are of great interest and 
puzzle the keenest minds with their layers of 
different shells, each distinctly defined in char- 
acter and differing in a marked form from the 
next. 

The water-worn river-banks show long and 
perfect sections of this character, and the strata 
are plainly seen in even and distinctly marked 
lines, not always level, but extending in long, 
unbroken elevations and depressions, — showing 
that ^ome disturbing upheavals have raised and 
lowered the deposited shells after they were im- 
bedded in their present order. 

Some of the strata, lying perhaps six inches in 
thickness, are composed of bivalve shells almost 
exclusively, much crushed and broken, but ce- 
mented quite firmly. Other strata are without 
shells of this form, being composed of conical, 
convolute shells of about one inch on each angfu- 
lar side ; but these differ again : in some the 



144 arpsT DATS. 

shells are fresh, but little broken, and not firmly 
cemented, — in others, crushed in line fragments, 
and strongly united with the lime made by their 
partial decomposition, they form the Coquina 
Rock. All these varieties may be seen overlying 
one another in a vertical height of four or five 
feet, and the different bands of color form lines 
that are visible as far as the face of the formation 
is exposed. 

Upon these shell-banks there are found numer- 
ous conical mounds, regular in form, rising from 
ten to thirty feet, evidently of human origin, 
supposed to have been, like the pyramids of 
Egpyt, burial-places for the distinguished dead of 
some race that has left no other record. The 
arrow-heads, axes and other works of rude art 
found in these mounds are those of the stone 
age, which on this continent is extended to the 
present time among remote Indian tribes ; but 
some of these implements are found imbedded in 
a conw'lomerate so firm and stone-like that they 
convey to the mind of the ethnologist an impres- 
sion of as remote antiquity as is attributed to the 
bone-cave and gravel-deposits of France. 

A ofreat deal of learnino- has been exhausted 
upon these remains ; but full examination has not 



GYPSY DAYS. 145 

yet been made, and many links in the chain of 
unwritten history may be supplied when a full 
comparison of these mounds and the works they 
contain is made with the corresponding discoveries 
of the Old World. 

As the more minute peculiarities of our pre- 
historic ancestors are learned, there is no safe 
limit to assume of the unravellings of the maze 
that surrounds the deeply interesting questions of 
unity or diversity of races ; and it is not unhkely 
that secrets are hidden in the shell-mounds of 
Florida that may, when discovered and interpreted 
in the broad light of future knowledge, tell many 
a curious tale of wandering tribes and far-fetched 
arts and customs. 

Half lost in vain theories and surmises aroused 
by these peculiar renmins, gun and rod were not 
unfrequently laid aside, and our minds given up 
to the romantic associations of the first voyagers 
who here sought the fountain of youth, carrying 
so much of woe and cruelty with them that it is 
fortunate for the present that they found no 
elixir of the kind ; and to the more vague but 
pleasant fancies of the race that still earlier 
possessed this alluring land and roamed freely, 
with no more idea of a coming and overcoming 



14G GYPSY DAYS. 

race than occurs to us now in our period of 
supremacy. 

But this is drifting, and we would not be left 
without anchorage in the realms of speculation. 
We really went rapidly against the stream, and 
after a long day of full enjoyment tied our craft 
to a bank, and in our small but snug cabin made 
pleasant plans for the morrow. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

GYPSY DAYS IN FLORIDA. 

Our third day on the little steamer found us 
among the prairies that lie on either side of the 
river below Lake Munroe. They were low plains 
with groups of trees like islands, and long rows 
of stately palmettos defining the curves and re- 
tracings of the idle river, reminding us of eastern 
scenes of desert and palms. Herds of half-wild 
cattle were seen upon them, and sometimes a wild 
turkey would seek cover, not by flight, but by 
running like the wind. A little back from the 
river, on wet places out of rifle range, were 
groups of white herons, the most stately and 
beautiful of birds, and great flocks of large cur- 
lew, while now P-nd then gannets would spread 



148 GYPSY DAYS. 

their huge black and white wings, and seek quiet 
further from the river. No bird is so showy 
and conspicuous as the gannet, and it was long 
our ambition to get one as a specimen ; but they 
were very wary, and only settled down in wet 
places remote from any cover of trees or brush. 
Fortune, however, at last did better for us than 
patience and perseverance (pardon any imputa- 
tion in favor of the fickle goddess); for while row- 
ing in a skiff, a flock alarmed by a steamer came 
laboring over the river, urging their way with 
powerful pinions against a gale of wind. They 
saw us, and tried to steer clear by turning their 
course several points into the wind ; but they 
made too much leeway to save their distance, and 
one fellow came down before my gun and sent 
up a cloud of spray from the river in his fall. 

'' Get 'um quick ! " exclaimed old July, my 
faithful boatman, " or an alligator may carry him 
down ; " and "get 'um quick " we did, bringing in 
as magnificent a mass of green, black and white 
plumage as nature ever adorned a bird with, 
arousing some speculations as to what a great 
economy would result, and what a vast amount 
of envious and toilsome strife and ambition would 
be saved, had poor bare humanity been as com- 



GYPSY DAYS. 149 

fortably and superbly clothed, without the toil of 
the needle or the costly fabrics of fashion. 
These reflections did not interest July, who at 
once explained his " get 'um quick " counsel as 
inspired by an experience that had impressed him 
very deeply. A gentleman hunting from Enter- 
prise shot a duck which fell in the water. As he 
was about taking it in, a large 'gator appropriated 
the bird. The gentlemen in turn gave the beast 
a peppering of shot for his sauce, enraging him 
without any serious injury, when he turned on the 
boat and took out a piece of the side, gunwale and 
all, so damaging -it that they only made their way 
home in it by careening the broken side high out of 
water. These ill-mannered fellows often deprive 
the hunter of game that falls in the water, and 
the foregoing incident teaches the imprudence of 
irritatino' them with shot. 

The fishing about the outlet of Lake Munroe 
is very good, but gar- and cat-fish play the 
mischief with trolling gear and carry away 
spoons most annoyingly. Bass are the best fish 
obtained, here known as trout by those who cannot 
even imagine the brilliant rapid mountain streams 
wherein the Northern beauties seize our dainty 
flies. 



160 GYPSY DAYS. 

In one of the eddying pools we took bass so 
rapidly that in less than half an hour the bottom 
of the skiff was alive with them. To avoid waste 
they were given to the steward of a steamboat, 
and abundantly supplied the table for a hungry 
crowd of tourists. 

In the spring-time the herons assume, to adorn 
their season of love-making, a plumage of remark- 
able beauty. It commences at the base of the 
neck, and extending backward between and over 
the wings, the long airy plumes of dainty feather 
sprays hang down gracefully behind the bird, 
and give a very stylish addition, a la " pannier," 
to a bird that never saw a fashion-plate and has 
no trouble with a laundress. 

To obtain these exquisite decorations for the 
race so sadly neglected by nature with regard to 
the adornments lavished on the so-called inferior 
creations, these " angel birds " are assiduously 
hunted, and are consequently so wild that only 
by strategy can they be shot on any of the bor- 
ders of the river. 

From our deck I noticed that numbers of blue, 
white and lesser herons alighted very constantly 
upon two isolated trees standing at the end of a 
shallow water-way that extended from the river 



GTPSY DATS. 151 

into the prairie ; so, with the hope of gaining 
some shots, we ordered a halt. The steamer was 
tied to a tree, and we launched a skiff and pad- 
dled through the water-lilies or " bonnets " (as 
the huge leaves are called), starting flocks of 
duck, rail and birds, and disturbing the siestas 
of numerous alligators and turtles. The only 
shelter was under some small water-growing 
bushes, where I hid myself as well as I could, 
draping my hat with Spanish moss, and disposing 
it about, for concealment ; the skiff was sent away 
to await recall later. 

After a time all the turmoil I had caused 
ceased. The diicks came one by one and dodged 
about under the reeds and lily-leaves, while inquis- 
itive blackbirds flitted near with impertinent airs 
and chaffed all my ideas of concealment with un- 
bounded slang. An alligator that had been out 
sunning himself where our boat lay, came up 
without a ripple and eyed me with idle curiosity 
as an interloper, until he drifted almost against 
the shore ; but we were after herons, and would 
shoot them only after the manner of the Western 
man, who, " when he went a cattin' went a 
cattin'," and would not accept a bass or pike in 
lieu of the wide-mouthed bull-head. Animal life 



152 GYPSY DAYS. 

was abundant all about, with little evidence of 
fear ; and watching it, it was easy to realize how 
deeply engrossed such naturalists as Audubon 
became in thus studying birds and animals when 
free in their own haunts. 

Nothing- seemed aware of me but the herons. 
They came from remote points and seemed about 
to perch on the old trees, where so many had been 
seen, but swept by and went on to other retreats. 
It was hardly possible for them to discover me, 
and I could not divine any cause for their wary 
movements unless they were warned by the angry 
scoldings of the blackbirds that hovered about 
with incessant sharp cries. A shot or two re- 
duced these alarmists to comparative silence, when 
a blue heron sailed up, poised for a moment on 
a bare limb, and then fell lifeless into the pool 
below. 

Hoping for other shots, I did not gather it in ; 
but it was not long before an alligator slowly 
swam towards the dead bird, and would probably 
have carried it away but for the opportuiie 
arrival of an explosive ball in his head. He 
churned the water for a moment like a propeller 
wheel, and then sought the bottom to die among 
the weeds, when again all was quiet. But I 



GYPSY BAYS. 153 

waited in vain : herons sailed about over the 
marshes, but none came near, until weary of 
watching I summoned the boat and poled back 
to the yacht, glad to get out of the miasmatic 
marsh. 

Our plan was to go above Lake Munroe, but 
the water was too low on the bar, and our boat 
could not get over. We visited Mellonville, 
where shad were being taken in enormous quan- 
tities ; and then anchored abreast the site of the 
old Enterprise Hotel, and landed, to visit once 
more, after several years' absence, the Blue Spring, 
than which none .can be more beautiful. It has 
been often described ; but it is not easy to convey 
an idea of the deep opaline tint of the water, nor 
of the picturesque effect of the round pool, and 
its overhanging shade of live oak, palmettos and 
vines. It is about eighty feet in diameter and 
very deep. There is no motion in the blue water ; 
but a very large stream flows away from it, show- 
ing the volume of the spring. The water leaves 
traces of white sulphur along the brook, which 
falls some twenty or thirty feet to the lake, 
affording a perfect place for running water and 
shower-baths. We remained over night at the 
Mellonville wharf, and visited some gardens con- 



154 GTPSY DATS. 

ducted by people of taste and skill, and saw many 
evidences of the capacity of this soil and climate 
to produce almost every luxury. Potatoes were 
grown in February for the table, oranges and 
bananas flourished free from danger of frost, and 
beautiful flowers rewarded very little care with 
profuse bloom. The geranium was a small tree 
in the open air, and the oleanders made shade for 
a party. 

Strawberries were ripe while ours were under 
deep snov/, and it was not easy to put faith in the 
idea that the cold March winds were heaping 
drifts that would for many a day resist the sun 
that fell with such force upon us. 

Wide shallow reaches of water extended into 
currentless bays, very shallow and warmed by the 
sun, all swarming with aquatic life that was dis- 
tinctly seen over the bright sandy bottom. Stand- 
ing on the bow of a skiff with old July, a good 
boatman, pushing it quietly along, it was like glid- 
ing through a well-filled aquarium. Garfish, with 
their long vicious noses, hardly cared to move, 
mullet in schools drifted about with little sign of 
alarm, moccasins and water-snakes swam under 
the boat glaring fiercely at it and darting out 
their crimson tongues in a threatening manner as 



GTFSY BATS. 155 

if they were quite ready to pick a quarrel with 
anything invading their haunts, — while stinging 
rays and electric eels were so abundant that it 
was evident that anyone so unfortunate as to fail 
in the water would meet a very unpleasant and 
dangerous reception. At one time, however, the 
prospect of plunging in among all those venomous 
things was very imminent. We were poling about, 
— Madame, La Petite Enfant, and the writer, — 
with old July as usual giving us the benefit of his 
keen observations in wild-life, when I shot an alli- 
gator who was enjoying a day out for sun-bathing 
and intellectual repose. The ball scarred his head 
quite deeply, and he lay quietly down without the 
ordinary display of power and vitality that they 
usually give when even fatally shot. We wanted 
to make a study of him : so he was gathered in 
and his head pushed under the bow-seat, where he 
was soon forgotten amid new scenes of interest. 
We went on and on, the water under us swarming 
with biting, stinging, shocking things, armed 
with spines, electricity and poisonous fangs ; in- 
deed, we were saying how bad it would be to get 
into trouble in such a spot, when the end seat of 
the boat flew into the air, and the alligator, which 
had been only stunned, was making himself vigor- 



156 OYPST DATS. 

ously manifest. He was smashing things freely 
in his efforts to turn around, and finally succeeded, 
when he came for us with open mouth, his head 
and jaws streaming with blood and unlimited 
vengeance in his eye. It ^vas an embarrassing 
moment. Jumping overboard was a last resort, 
shooting him involved shooting through him and 
the bottom of the boat ; there was really no time to 
arrange a scheme for the emergency. He came 
slowly along, opening a most ample and un- 
pleasant exhibit of red mouth and strong teeth 
bent on immediate business, when July, who was 
crowded against us in the end of the skiff, got an 
oar into his jaws, and in a moment we had him in 
the water, when a second shot made him manage- 
able. 

We shot many after this, but never took any 
more into our skiffs when out as a family party, 
as they are very uncertain in dying, and when 
wounded are enormously strong and violent. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

GYPSYING IN FLORIDA. 

Turning northward, we gave ourselves to the 
current and went rapidly on. At times we would 
tie the yacht to a tree, and leaving her and her 
crew, row quietly up some of the small and un- 
frequented streams that join the river. Here all 
was as wild as when the Indians pursued game 
with their stone arrow-heads and took fish with 
bone spears ; nature seemed to revel in her own 
power and beauty, and cast her glories of golden 
sunlight and varied foliage on every hand. The 
huge serried leaves of the palmettos swayed and 
glistened like shields hiding a woodland host. 
Cypress-trees held their light foliage high against 
the sky, and graceful vines hung in long curves 



158 GYFST DATS. 

from them to the dense underg^rowth of novel 
form. Creeping-plants held their bloom over the 
water on dead trunks, while air plants and ferns 
found resting-places on the old oaks, amid whose 
upper branches balls of mistletoe shone with their 
polished leaves. All this would be doubled in 
reflection, while the dividing line between the 
exquisite reality and the no less beautiful image 
below was so hidden by trailing vines and aquatic 
plants that the vistas of the narrow streams be- 
came dreamy and indistinct as they extended far 
away into an uncertainty of waving moss and 
deceptive shadows. 

Stealing once quietly far into one of these deep, 
overhung bayous, with all the mysterious sur- 
roundings of festooned moss, tangled vines and 
luxurious growth, I passed into shade that was 
almost darkness. The boat drifted slowly and 
silently under the interlaced branches, hardly dis- 
turbing the mirror-like surface by a ripple. Now 
and then a moccasin snake would drop from the 
trees into the dark water ; one clumsy wretch fell 
on the edge of the skiff, arousing our specula- 
tion as to whether he would stay in or wriggle 
out, until it was with unmingled satisfaction that 
we saw him slip into the bayou. Others of his 



GYPSY DATS. 159 

fellows would rest in a coil on the huge water-lily 
leaves and assume threatening attitudes as we 
glided past them. At length the secluded end of 
the water-way was reached with noiseless paddle, 
and there on the trunk of a half-fallen tree were 
the genii of this sombre retreat. Solemn, wise 
and immeasurably imposing spirits they were, — the 
familiars of hags and witches, the omen birds of 
thousands of years of superstition, — an assemblage 
of owls. They were numerous enough for a full 
jury, and it is beyond question that I was duly 
passed upon without a hearing. The verdict was 
not handed down ; but it is probably known 
throughout the miasmatic precincts of this name- 
less estuary, that the only man who had ever 
imprudently invaded its dark recesses was con- 
demned and ordered away forever, by the wisest 
bench of worthies that ever maintained the digni- 
ties of local law. We may commit worse crimes 
than stealing into one of nature's charmed circles, 
but we shall never face again so solemn and im- 
pressive a judicial bench. 

Coming from the shadows of cypress and palm 
to the brilliant sunlight, we would go on, miles in 
advance of the yacht, drifting noiselessly with 
the stream, often stealing upon game, and fre- 



160 GYPSY DAYS. 

quentlj getting a few fish. When tired, we could 
wait until overtaken, tie our skiff behind the 
steamer, and enter the snug cabin to find shelter, 
rest and all the comforts needful. No life could 
be more enjoyable. We were not confined to a 
limited district as when in camp, and yet there 
was the same freedom and the same opportunities 
for seeing and sharing wildwood pursuits. There 
was variety in every day, fresh scenes each hour, 
and new temptations and anticipations leading on 
and on, from one point to another, — all with little 
or no fatigue. 

This simple method of steam-yachting must 
become one of the most popular of all indul- 
gences. With our great lakes, connected by safe 
and navigable routes, and rivers of endless extent 
and unlimited variety, through which one may 
wander from the tropics to the far north, and find 
all climates and the fruits and game of each, 
there are unparalleled opportunities for this luxu- 
rious life. Whatever taste or fancy may impel 
one to wandering, in a yacht all the comforts and 
conveniences can be carried. The botanist can, at 
leisure and undisturbed, unfold his cases of plants ; 
the artist can sketch, and not have to gather up 
the disorder of easel and studio j the geologist 



GYPSY DAYS. 161 

may ballast his craft with stone, and the ethnolo- 
gist gather relics and form a museum en route. 
For the naturalist and sportsman it is perfection. 
His rods need not be unjointed or his guns un- 
lirabered. He can stuff his specimens, load shells 
and tie dainty flies by a window before which new 
and varied scenes are passing ; or after a hard 
day's tramping come back to abundant comforts. 
Of course, there may be a good deal of ex- 
pense connected with yachting ; but very complete 
launches and small yachts are now put afloat in 
perfect trim, for hardly any greater cost for pur- 
chase or maintenance than is represented by each 
of hundreds of fine carriages that are to be met 
with on the fashionable avenues of our great 
cities, and we are confident from personal expe- 
rience, that — abandoning all ambition for the 
luxuries of cuisine and seeking only plain and 
needful arrangements — a small family or a few 
gentlemen may make summer or winter trips 
with no more cost than is incurred by many 
pleasure parties who find far less of comfort and 
independence than they would commanding their 
own yacht and their OAvn movements. A man of 
as much skill as is required to make a successful 
sportsman can do a great deal in attending to 



1G2 GYPtSY DAYS. 

his boat, so that the cost and annoyance of hav- 
ing- too many men may be avoided. 

The trip described in these notes was made in a 
small yacht chartered by the day. She was about 
forty-eight feet long, and carried captain, pilot, 
engineer and fireman, yet the cost for a party of 
four was only about the same as the daily hotel 
board and passage tickets over the route ; while 
the ability to visit many points without remaining 
until another boat should permit moving on, was 
a very great economy of time and money. Of 
course, much was seen and enjoyed that the tour- 
ist is usually hurried past, or only sees in com- 
pany with a crowd that does away with all the 
romance and characteristic quiet of the wilderness. 

The captain was a useless party and did no 
service. The pilot w^as needful. The fireman 
was a luxury, a mere attendant upon a lazy 
engineer ; one man could easily feed the fire, and 
run the engine with less trouble than he could 
get out of the fireman's way, so that two men — 
one a competent and careful engineer, and the 
other a pilot well acquainted with the channels — 
could run a launch or small yacht with ease, and 
keep her under way as many hours per diem as 
would be desirable. 



GYFSY DAYS. 163 

Not only are the rivers and lakes of Florida 
attractive eruising-grounds, but the inlets and 
estuaries of the Southern coasts offer great induce- 
ments for the invalid, the naturalist, the antiqua- 
rian and sportsman. 

In the spring when the sun begins to fall with 
a fierce heat on the rivers, and despite all said to 
the contrary, does render too much exposure im- 
prudent, the sea-coast is perfect. The finer kinds 
of fish are in season, and many beach and bay 
birds are to be obtained. 

In April the sea-bathing is safe and pleasant, 
and invalids and well people will do a prudent 
thing to halt alongshore and delay their return 
until such birds as the bobolinks and orioles are 
with them, and not risk the loss of all the benefit 
of a long and costly trip, by coming on with the 
robins and bluebirds who are beguiled by a few 
warm days into shivering through many a long 
bleak storm. 

Returning from this rambling disquisition upon 
drifting in one's own craft, we come back to our 
own for the time, and tie her to the wharf at 
Orange Bluff, above Lake George. Night has 
fallen, and we light a pitch-pine fire and cook 
thereon, while enjoying the picturesque effect of 



164 GYPSY DAYS. 

the rich, mellow light that illumines our boat 
against the dark river, and brings out here and 
there a tree in brig-ht relief. Some deer-hunters 
join us, light their pipes and take their nightcap 
from our flask. The stories of a real backwoods- 
man are always amusing and awaken the common 
interest of all the craft ; so naturally it is late 
before we mature plans with our new friends for 
a hunt together, when they call their dogs and go 
to their cabin, and we turn in to dream of antlers 
and trophies. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

GYPSYING IN FLORIDA. 

We awoke at our mooring at Orange Bluff and 
found a fair bright morning. As soon as the 
sun was well up, our cronies of the evening before 
came with their guns on their shoulders, followed 
by half-bred hounds. The steam was impatiently 
escaping, so no time was lost. Our skiffs were 
tied astern, and off we went against the dark tide 
of the river to a point some miles above, where 
we sidled up to- a steep bank and tied the yacht 
to a tree. 

Here under a superb oak, with wild-orange trees 
all about, we made a camp for the ladies, and 
then took skiffs for a stretch up a shallow inlet. 
"We landed at last in a tangle of orange-trees, 



166 GYPSY DAYS. 

palmettos, vines and cypress, — all forming a beau- 
tiful mass of foliage, with a carpet of moss. The 
bitter oranoes, more fair and 2"oldeu and much 
larger than the sweet fruit, hung in bunches that 
weighed down the branches and seemed almost to 
cast a glow in the deep shade. 

From this cool retreat we worked our way to a 
more open upland, where a few scattered pitch- 
pines cast a meagre shadow. The ground was 
sandy, sometimes bearing a little wire-like grass, 
with here and there some pretty wild-flowers of 
unfamiliar form and unknown names, and at other 
points covered with the saw-palmetto, a low con- 
nection of the more lofty cabbage-palm, so called 
from a row of saw-like teeth on each edge of its 
flat stem. The leaves were about shoulder high, 
rendering it prudent to keep hands and gun ele- 
vated to avoid sharp rasps from the serrated 
stems. 

Our course led along the edge of a cypress- 
swamp, keeping a few rods from it. As we fol- 
lowed along after the hounds, which were now 
slowly beating about under the low growth, we 
gained from oiu* companions some idea of " jump- 
ing deer." The deer, here very numerous, hide 
and harbor in the swamps during the day. At 



GYPSY DAYS. 167 

night they come mto the " pme open " to feed, 
returning leisurely as dawn approaches, leaving 
on the dew a trail that remains until the sun is 
well up. The hounds strike this scent, and dash- 
ing into the swamp alarm the deer in their midday 
repose. They will not run long in the wet ground 
where vines and canes hamper them, but break 
out and make for the scrub islands, which are up- 
land thickets of thorn and rough low trees, amid 
which they find refuge, and rarely leave them. 
As the only chance of shooting them is between 
the swamp and the scrub, it is not desirable that 
the dogs should be speedy or staunch. Half-bred 
hounds or even curs are the best, as they soon 
abandon the trail and return to follow another one 
into the low ground. As we came where game 
was expected, we separated to cover a long inter- 
val between the cypress and the thickets, and 
walked slowly on, waiting to hear from the hounds. 
It was not lono; before their excitinof tones were 
heard, when we stood motionless by pine-stems 
for concealment, and listened eagerly to gain an 
idea when the game would break cover. It was 
not our luck to see this chase, as the baying 
hounds swept around a low hill to a point where 
Lee had gone, and our only knowledge of its ter- 



168 GYFSr DAYS. 

mination came from the report of his gun and a 
distant whoop of exultation announcing his suc- 
cess. 

The dogs remained with Lee until he came in, 
bearing a fat young buck, which was concealed 
from the keen eyes of the buzzards by a covering 
of palmetto-leaves, when we went on as before. 
The dogs followed a number of trails, but no 
deer came out for a long time ; and we were about 
turnino- back when a laroe buck burst from the 
swamp with a hound at his heels and almost 
jumped over Foster, who pitched up his gun and 
fired within a few feet ; but the buck saw the sud- 
den movement and dodged so quickly that a shot 
through his ear was Foster's only mark. Now 
sadly frightened, he sailed over the palmetto- 
leaves running between us, so that for a moment 
I dared not fire, but could only watch his graceful 
bounds, until, when out of range of the guide, I 
sighted him on a bound, and he did not gather 
his feet under him again, but fell in a merciful 
death. He was old and gray, large and tough, 
a wary old fellow, with splendid horns, and he had 
probably made many an escape from hounds or 
from a more fatal enemy, — the panther. 

It was now midday and the grass too dry to 



GYPSY DAYS. 169 

retain a trail, so we made our way back to our 
boat : the guides staggering under the loads of 
game, while I found load enough in adding their 
ponderous guns to my own. 

We rowed back to the yacht and found that 
some fish had been taken, while the engineer came 
in with a wild-cat he had shot as it was skulking 
along the river's edge seeking fish. 

We lunched under the bearded oak, and then 
Madame started on a shopping expedition in the 
yacht to Volusia, seven miles down the river, to 
get fresh supplies for the domestic department of 
the boat. 

White and lesser herons were lighting on some 
trees in some low islands not far away, seeming 
preparing to roost there ; so embarking again in 
a boat, I had Foster leave me concealed among 
the overhanging vines, where I crouched down 
with a vivid sensation that it was just the haunt 
for moccasins and alligators. After the boat was 
far away, groups of heron swept around and over 
the island, scanning it with keen eyes, only to 
wing their way on as if uncertain ; but as night 
came on, the desire to roost there overcame their 
suspicions, and they came thick and fast, giving 
me numerous shots more or less favorable. When 



170 GYFSY DATS. 

Foster came for me, we gathered in a number, 
losing one that we fancied an outlying alligator 
took. 

The plumage of the white heron, or " angel 
bird," fills one with endless admiration, so pure 
and light are its sprays. These birds were taken 
in with all possible care as valued specimens, and 
were free from stains. Laying them in careful 
order, we started to pull back to meet our steamer. 
The darkness came, and we were well on our way 
before her light was seen. She came after us, 
but we told old Paul to leave us to row to Orange 
Bluff, so she turned about and went dashing by 
us, leaving us rocking in her wake. 

She was tied fast when we came to her ; and 
calling for a light, we came quietly alongside, 
holding our white birds up to show like phantoms 
against the darkness. They were hung in the 
cabin, much to the delight of our little passenger, 
whose fancy was charmed with the beautiful birds. 
Orange Bluff we found very pleasant ; and the 
kind-hearted resident of the place offering to take 
us in with his family, we concluded to send the 
yacht home and enjoy his hospitality. 

The fishing was excellent, and from here we 
made excursions of very great interest. Two In- 



GYPSY DAYS. 171 

dian mounds are here, of marked character, which 
have been examined by various ethnologists. 

And thus passed our days on the great St. 
Johns, — idle days, but full of varied interests, 
that did not fail to charm us until the time came 
to return to busy scenes and engrossing occupa- 
tions in the North, — feeling that one can hardly 
go amiss if prepared to seek natural interests, and 
leave Saratoga trunks, watering-place amusements 
and dissipations behind. Those who want the re- 
sources of fashion will do well to linger in Jack- 
sonville or gay St. Augustine, and leave yachting 
and Bohemianism to the easily pleased lovers of 
wild-life. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE BIRCH BARK. 



Far back in the Canada Bush the Magnetawan 
is a silver cord in the forest on which are strung, 
like pearls, a few beautiful lakes where in the 
autumn the brilliant-hued maples and sumachs 
flaunt their gaudy colors before a background of 
black spruces, green hemlocks and sombre pines. 
For many a sinuous mile the river winds without 
a rapid, reflecting unbroken woodland of endless 
beauty ; all the eye sees is nature, so wild, undis- 
turbed and imjDressive that it would seem rude 
desecration to launch on the surface of the mirror- 
like water any but a birch-bark canoe. A boat 
would do violence to the charming repose ; but a 



GYFSY DAYS. 173 

birch-bark rests on the water Hke an autumn-leaf, 
the ripples caress its graceful curves with a low 
naurmur ; breaths of air waft the fragile form to 
and fro, while it mingles the tints of its dull silver 
sides with the water-grasses and overhanging 
foliasfe without seemino; to break the soft-color 
harmonies in their perfection. 

The Adirondack boat has style in every line, 
but the oarsman is laboring before one all the 
time. The crisp waves that are cast aside by 
the sharp bow are a little too energetic, there is 
a faintly suspicious business purpose in their rus- 
tle, and too much reality mingles in the dream, 
as in it the rambler follows the lines of the 
lake beaches or the windings of the streams. 

There is dash and spirit in the cat-boat as she 
casts spray half-mast high and shoots with shiver- 
ing sail into the teeth of a squall ; there is a rush 
that thrills one when a yacht lies low with sing- 
ing cordage ; there is a fascination in standing on 
the bridge of a leviathan steamer as she rises to 
the rhythm of huge ocean billows ; there are in- 
tense sensations in the sweep of the Mackinaw 
boat : but all must give way to the birch-bark, 
the wild woodland's aquatic creation, one that we 
feel could fly like a bird or bound like a fawn. 



174 GYFSY DATS. 

were not its own motion so much more graceful 
and stealthy. 

In retrospect I summon memories of many a 
gypsy outing. The bayous, where the palmetto- 
leaves rustle under bearded cypresses, fill my 
mind with memories of great beauty ; the gray 
cliffs of the Sierra are not forgotten, nor are the 
towering forms of the great trees that adorn their 
rocky sides, nor the peaks of the Rocky Mountains 
where the snow drifted over me as a blanket, 
welcome for the warmth it assured, — all are 
dreams of grand scenes that revive associations of 
deep impress, while with them come recollections 
of Nova Scotia lakes, Adirondack streams and 
sea-beach encampments ; but still more full of 
the romance that seems apart from reality are 
the thoughts of canoeing back in " the bush " on 
the Magnetawan. 

I am again in fancy seated in the bow on the 
folded camp blankets, with a back-rest formed 
of the tent canvass, — a nest of complete luxury. 
A rifle lies before me across the withes that 
form the gunwales, ready for snap-shots, and 
the canoe moves from the camping-place. My 
Canadian voyageur is a powerful man, a skilful 
paddler. His paddle rarely rises from the water, 



GYPSY DAYS. 175 

SO no sound of falling- drops is audible ; it has a 
long, steady sweep that moves the frail bark 
along like an animate impulse, one that seems to 
suggest neither labor nor fatigue. 

Thus in quiet we steal along ; the river unfold- 
ing in curves of graceful contour a succession of 
views that comprise all the wild-wood features that 
charm the lover of solitude. Signs of animal occu- 
pation abound, while the scars of the axe are not 
present to suggest the desolation that follows the 
woodsman. Boughs cut by the beaver only 
float on the stream, peeled of their bark for food 
by the sharp teeth of these industrious animals. 

Otter-slides — steep, smooth and slippery — are 
seen on the banks, where these beautiful animals 
slide for fun and plunge at the end into the 
stream, — real tobogganing parties by mooiiHght, 
with no reporters present. Bruin, too, rambles 
along the margins of the river, now and then 
standing up to a tree to bite out a piece of bark 
as high as he can reach, leaving the white wood 
exposed, his challenging gauntlet, which in the 
etiquette of the forest means, " This is my terri- 
tory ; if you cannot take a bite higher and bigger 
than this, just keep away or there'll be trouble 
bruin." 



176 OYPSY DAYS. 

At intervals of a few miles, ospreys choose tall 
trees for their watch-towers, from which they 
launch themselves like wingfed arrows into the 
water, casting showers of spray high in the air, 
rising with laborious pinions, often holding a 
captured fish in their talons, which they bear 
away in triumph if no rival makes contest for the 
promised feast. They are birds of great dash 
and courage, and as they sail in graceful aerial 
circles are objects of constant interest. 

Our canoe stealing shadow-like along the 
winding stream was a most startling apparition 
to the clumsy and not over-keenwitted muskrats, 
who failed to recognize it as other than a forest 
feature until actually upon them, when they quite 
atoned for their lack of alertness by sudden energy 
in plunging under water, where they remained 
in terrified concealment until we were far away. 

Peeled twigs set along the banks were trappers' 
marks ; silently stealing around a point, we came 
upon an Indian family in their canoe, the squaw 
using the paddle with skill, while the Indian 
lifted his traps, which were chained to the white 
wands. An infant aborigine shared the center 
of the canoe with a heap of dead muskrats the 
color of his own wild skin. 



GYPSY DAYS. 1"T 

A few interesting" lakes are reached by the 
sinuous Magnetawan, where bold islands afford 
charming camping-retreats. On one of these 
islands we grounded our birch-barks, and estab- 
lished a camp where we idled days away, revelling 
in the bracing autumn air, gazing on the crimson 
maples flaming in startling contrast to the som- 
ber pines and spruces, and occasionally hunting. 
Deer were very abundant, indeed : quite as many 
were brought to camp in our canoes as we could 
use, hungry as we were from the wild-life that so 
rapidly restores vital energy and renders health, 
not merely freedom from illness, but a positive 
physical condition of keen animal enjoyment. 

With a canoe one can steal into the recesses 
of the wilderness without snapping a twig or 
rustling a leaf, so that a keen eye can peer into 
the homes and mysteries of bird and animal life 
with the consciousness of being part of the wild 
scenes that ever charm the lover of undisturbed 
nature. 

It was in a canoe of the frailest form that the 
writer once rested his paddle while a friend was 
playing a large and gamey trout, one so strong 
that he pulled the light craft along the shore of 
a wild-wood pond until it floated close to a deer 



178 GYPSY DAYS. 

that with dainty footsteps was stepping into the 
crystal water for his sunset drink. The beauti- 
ful animal was not alarmed, we had no desire 
to injure it, and it gazed on us with wide-eyed 
wonder until a dash of the desperate trout startled 
it. A long graceful bound, — and it w^as over the 
low shrubs, safe in the dark forest. 

It is now difficult to enjoy actual canoeing in 
perfection without going far into the wilds of 
Maine or the Canadas. Skiffs have replaced 
them on the few rivers that are free enouoh from 

o 

dams and wire fences to permit easy voyaging, 
and few guides are obtainable that can propel 
them in perfect silence, no water dropping from 
the thin paddle-blade and no gurgling eddies 
from its powerful use. 

The modern canoe is a beautiful achievement 
in many exquisite forms, and probably offers the 
most agreeable method of nomadic rambling, as 
thousands of brave and hundreds of fair canoeists 
can testify ; but the birch-tree, that has been a 
forest feature for hundreds of unrecorded years, 
gave the Indian a light shell for his frail water 
creation that art can never equal. It is of the 
woodland, bearing the mottled sunlight on its 
gleaming sides, the dampness of deep shade in 



OYPSY DAYS. 



179 



tiny mosses that cling' to the curving sheets of 
bark : while the free spirit of wild-life is in every 
graceful line. Seen amid civilized surroundings, 
it brinofs the remote woodland streams to mind 
with vivid suggestion ; seen amid the lights and 
shadows of the Northern rivers, it tells a story of 
stealthy motion that ever charms the real woods- 
man, who never goes so far towards the sources 
of unknown streams that he does not feel that 
his birch-bark could yet bear him into still 
greater seclusion. The daintiest Rob Roy is an 
invader in following a forest river to its source 
of moss-and-fern surrounded springs ; but the 
birch-bark is not : as it flits like a shadow from 
the broad stream to the amber-colored rivulet, it 
is not intruding, — it is simply going home. 



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